Rattle wrote:
] If I'm correct in my knowledge of crypto, if you understood
] the cipher, you would know what you would have to have your
] super computers do to derive a key. If you assume that the
] ciphers don't have any obvious weaknesses (which is safe, the
] guys down at the NSA know what they are doing), and the key
] sizes are large, then its still unlikely that it would aid you
] in being able to derive information from an encrypted
] communication within a timeframe where it would be useful.

Your assumption is where this is breaking down. The NSA doesn't assume that the ciphers they produce don't have any obvious weaknesses. They assume that every cipher can be broken, and they assume that their enemies are at least as good at breaking ciphers as they are (which sometimes is a good assumption.)

RE: HoustonChronicle.com - Top secret part among the shuttle debris