

The US embassy cables enigma - bootload
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/dec/21/mathematics-computing/print

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cperciva
I groaned at the claim that there's a theoretical limit to how fast NP-
complete problems can be solved; no such (non-trivial) limit is known, but
most computer scientists at least suspect that NP != P.

I laughed at the claim that using NP-complete problems is 'called "public key
cryptography"'; in fact, none of the commonly-used public-key cryptosystems
are based on NP-complete problems.

But I cried when I reached this line: " _Roughly, the idea behind public key
cryptography is that you have one prime; the intended recipient has the other;
and the message is transmitted openly using the product of the numbers_ "

This is why journalists shouldn't write about cryptography.

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mryan
"So, when it comes to WikiLeaks obtaining US diplomatic cables, either no one
at the US state department had ever heard of cryptography, or they were too
lazy to care, or –"

I think the author missed a fundamental point of encryption - if someone with
access to the decryption key wants to leak the plain text, it is quite
difficult to stop them.

