Complexity Digest 2001.09 - 21

26-Feb-2001

The Key Vanishes: Scientist Outlines Unbreakable Code, NYTimes Bookmark and Share

Excerpt: But with Dr. Rabin's system, the message stays secret forever because the code uses a stream of random numbers that are plugged into the key for encoding and decoding. The numbers are never stored in a computer's memory, so they essentially vanish as the message is being encrypted and decrypted.(...)

The coding starts with a continuously generated string of random numbers, say from a satellite put up to broadcast them or from some other source.