Geneticware of the British Virgin Islands has devised an intriguing new way
to keep Internet messages secret (GB 2358333). All encryption systems rely on
keys to decode a scrambled message. But hackers can still steal the key while it
is being sent to someone. The new idea is to send an encrypted test message from
computer A to computer B, along with a program that computer B uses to generate
many possible decoding keys. Computer B keeps generating keys, and sending back
the results to computer A, until computer A sees that the test message has been
decoded. It will then send back a message saying 鈥渦se that key鈥. So both
computers use the correct key, without communicating it. The weak point? Someone
else may get hold of the key generator program.
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