h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here's one of mine: I use the names of past boyfriends. No-one I know now would ever know these names, so I can discuss this strategy without fear of losing security! Meanwhile, for me, the associations are strong enough that I can remember them without effort.

This link should take you to the original thread for this discussion: http://www.h2g2.com/addnewthread.cgi?inreplyto=400471 -- there are two interesting strategies discussed there.

Is this all from what you wrote before on the other website? It is very good. I especially like the bit about class 1 secrets being black holes of truth that bend and twist the reality around them. (If there are many spelling mistakes inthis that is because i AM TYPING WITH A PLASTER ON MY INDEX FINGER - oh damn!, see what i mean)>?

I've been trying to think of methods for secret keeping. I kept thinking about codebreaking. I don't now much about computer encryption but older methods simply start by substituting one letter for another using a key. So long as the proper recipiant of the coded message has the key they can decipher it but it should be unreadable to anyne intercepting it on-route. This is much likeWhat MyreddICE SUGGESTED(whoops! again.) However the code is not safe if someone is able to discover the key.
Maybe if i van find out some more discuss encryption methods like computer encryption, Roman methods and the Enigma code used by germany in World War Two.

Just for fun: If...


A B D C E F G H I K...
Q G E D 3 R T Y 8 U...

Try this message:

H9 3sqjw 5t8w 233i w9 o95w 9r w0q43 58j3. 8'oo t9 qhe w33 2yq5 8 dqh e43et3 70 9h j35t9ew 9r i3308ht w57rr w3d435.
W33 697 oq534
Do8f2

I left a message witb PETA asking her for some help to advertise our cause. So far it's just you., me and MyRed Dice
Hopefully this should bring in a new crowd.

Clive

"No exams this week so lots of spare time. I'll go and see what I can dredge up on methods of keeping stuff secret. See you later Clive."
Neat!

Another way that is easy with computers is to go to one of the fonts in the standard lists which accompany most word-processing software and substitute (for instance) Wingdings for text -- you can do it automatically, of course, by selecting the text and then clicking on Wingdings.

Well done ! *claps hands in admiration* I wonder if there is a TRULY random code that could not be broken because it does not use a key?

I'm not sure what you are referring to here. If you have some Secret, and turn it into a piece of Encrypted text, then the method you use to do it is the "encryption method". The reverse process uses a "decryption method".

In simple methods, knowing the encryption method tells you the decryption method - like your example earlier. More complicated algorithms have been devised where this is not the case - this is the origin of "public key cryptography", so called because you can make the encryption method public, quite safely.

Now, if there is no decryption method, then your secret is completely safe. An example of this is where the"encryption method is just deleting the secret! Alternatively your encryption method might be to put your secret in a bottle and throw it into the sea.

I think what I meant was something I had heard *emphasise the tenuousness by which 'heard' is meant, read: heresay* that wasn't there some attempt to utilise the probabilty/uncertainty equations of quantum physics in computer programming. Somehow this got linked to encryption methods and possibly a code that that generated itself and did not need a 'key' to encrypt or decrypt. By all means tell me I'm wrong, I rather suspect that is the case but I'm pretty sure it was something like that.

Clive

Oh - I see. Yeah, such a thing exists.

It's kind of complicated... try imaging you have a special pair of dice (red, of course), and if you roll them at the same time, then they'll give the same result. So to generate a key for us to communicate with, we both own one of the two dice, we roll them six times (say) to generate a key, and use that to communicate.

Now, replace "magic dice" with "entangled quantum states", and you're pretty much there

MyredDice - if you're a student, hearsay is called "research"...

Because passwords are not meant to be decrypted, a method called "one way encryption" is used. Essentially this means that the password you have chosen "encrypts" to a certain string which is stored but that this process cannot be reversed to give you your password.
Then when you enter your password choice it is encryted and the result tested against the stored encrypted version - if they match then the source password is the same and you can be let in.

But I have found that the source (human side) is not nearly as random as you might imagine. Approximately half of all passwords tend to fall into:
(1) The users girlfriend/boyfirend with '1' after it.
(2) The users car reg. no.
(3) The name of the database being logged into

...darn, I'll be back soon, just gotta change all my passwords

That's interesting!! At least I'm not WHOLLY conventional -- only one of my current passwords conforms to the girl/boyfriend approach I now find. The rest are varied enough that I have no fears of security breach: one is a word from a Himalayan language, one is a common English word -- that expresses an idea I am fond of -- one is a flavour with numbers. I also tend to use the same password at each of different sites to save on having to remember each one separately.So if security is breached at one place, it'll be breachable at other places but ... I'm not worried! So far, I've not had much reason to care.

Hmmm. I posted a message here yesterday only it doesn't seem to have appeared. Oh well here goes again.

I told Peta about having a guide entry for password/encryption methods and she wants us to write a separate page calling for ideas, you know the sort of thing:

"All the busy researchers here at H2G2 Towers are looking for methods of keeping things secret like ways of making passwords or encryption techniques. So if you want to drop us a line.... etc."

If we then leave the URL with Peta for that page she will try alerting others to join in. (Maybe even, a "Call for Entries...")

All good then.
Clive

Are you online? We could chat. My ICQ number is (yes! I realize that this will make it available to all the million members of h2gt ... somehow, I'm not worried): 42280075

... the reason for suggesting a chat is that I'm NOT sure what you mean by a separate page and thought it might make sense (be quicker too) to be clear about that before stumbling through the infinite blackness of space, getting nowhere. I'll stay on for about another hour. In case I don't catch up with you, what I'm unsure of is this: do you mean that I should begin a new Guide Entry and call it "Passwords and Encryption"? or just another forum thread, related to "Secrets and Passwords"?

I can never get those real time chat things to work ICQ or Microsoft Messenger, and I've only just found your message so I hope that you get this in time. On the front page when they have a Call for Entries the is usuallly a brief page saying, for example,
"we like cooking chicken and we want you recipes for how to do, either respond directly to this page or leave a message in the forums below and hopefully we can turn this into a proper guide entry..."

Peta will then advertise THAT page on the introductory screen and people should *crosses fingers* start to reply Having the guide entry will generate it's own forums - we'll start them off anyway and then when we have enough information, we can update the Call for Entires page into the actual guide entry. I think that's how it works anyway.


Clive

...to be clear. A separate page.

Clive

Sorry, I've been web-less for a couple of days ... will post a new page right now ... (there's no little face which expresses mild abashedness ... and I've forgotten how to do the round-mouthed one, but here goes ...)8-0

... and, it is done: a new page exists where none existed before -- complete with typos that cannot now be corrected! Will you, Clive, bring this page to Peta's notice, please(*weak excuse #34.9: because you have claimed prior experience in this matter!*)? Thanks, in advance ...Magnolia

Would you care to tell us where it is?

Umm.. I haven't looked to check whether or not someone's already dispensed all this information or not (I've seen that someone has at least one bit of it) but there's a rather nice encruption / cipher explanation which is basically an introduction to PGP, the best public encryption program at www.pathogen.org.uk ... It's the Encryption section. (And if anyone wants to use any of it for a guide entry, they should feel free, as long as they ask, since I wrote it. )