Gpcode: The Dark Side of Cryptography
For quite some time, the issue of whether or not cryptography should be subjected to governmental control was very hot. A little over a year ago I wrote a research paper defending the side of privacy activists who claim that its usage should be unrestricted.
I shared their view until very recently when I read about a new computer virus, Gpcode, which uses RSA to encrypt a victim’s hard drive and demand ransom for data on it. Kaspersky Lab, one of the most prominent anti-virus companies seems to be panicking. I can’t blame them. It would take years and years to crack the key used by the virus.
A few days ago I was strongly against a cryptography ban of any sort. Now, after finding out it can be used in such a sinister way, I am uncertain. What do you think, should cryptography be controlled?
Tagged as Cryptography, Law, Politics + Categorized as Opinions, Cryptography and Privacy, Opinions, Politics
ANy luck with my cipher as yet???
No. To tell you the truth I haven’t had much time to look at it. Before you answered my comment I tried to crack it by analyzing groups and treating them as separate words but if they are not separate words I don’t even know how to approach it (without asking you to encrypt some text and post it encrypted so that I can use it as a crib).
However I do have a question. If those groups were a coincidence (and I find that very hard to believe mind you), how will the intended recipient figure out where the word break is (will he do that at all)? Are you using ASCII to convert letters/symbols into numbers?
No No ! No ascii. If you know the logic you will know that spaces are not necessary !!! Lemme know if i can encrypt any text that you want.. i’ll be glad to… the groups are a coincidence, trust me. :)