http://www.meganet.com/challenges/ferrari/ferrari.htm

Crack the file, win the Ferrari!

some interesting stuff about Meganet: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/1999/07/07press.html

 

Cool contest. Too bad I don't know jack about cracking codes. I bet some grad students can crack this. When I worked at DIRECTV, we always said, what one group of engineers can make, another group of engineers can unmake.

 

I've never studied encryption, although I find it fascinating. Based on just the tidbits I've read about it, here are some factors for breaking encryption:

• A lot of it has to do with the human factor - either finding the key through espionage, or the operators do something dumb like send the same message in both an unbreakable cypher and a previously cracked one. The history of the Enigma device during WWII is fascinating.
  
• Encryption schemes sometimes aren't quite as random as the designers wanted. Bugs or design flaws can lead to a key that's, say, 1024bits to be only as secure as a 42bit key.
  
• Encryption strength has a lot to do with the randomness of the key - a key that's nothing but a string of the char A isn't very secure.
  
• If there are no bugs in the system, and you can't get the key from a human agency, the only alternative I know of is brute force. With a key of 1,048,576 bits, a brute force method using today's fastest computers would take longer than the age of the Universe. In order to do it in six months, in each picosecond you'd have to check a number of keys greater than the number of atoms in the Universe.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Elistan
[B]I've never studied encryption, although I find it fascinating.