Re: Seriation

On 01/02/2025 16:04, Rich wrote:

Welcome back, after a long silence.

Bloody Thunderbird. I start using a new computer for the first time since Trafalgar and BING! --- Usenet is working again!

What I posted was what I took to be the meaning from your posts.

And you may well be righter than me, it all being several centuries ago now.

Naturally I may have 'diverged' slightly in my interpretation from your
true intent (my not having a Usenet crystal ball with which to read
minds remotely certianly helps explain some divergence).

Yeah, that's your problem right there - failing not only to read minds but /future/ minds.

If I recall correctly (and it's entirely possible that I don't), what
I was after in SCOS was something just a little bit harder to read
than ROT-13, because people here were having ROT-13 conversations
that they clearly believed some regulars (eg aob) couldn't read, but
I couldn't quite bring myself to believe that anyone could be
incapable of decrypting ROT-13.

 I do believe there were some rot-13 posts, and quite possibly an
assumption that AOB could not crack them.

I do actually stand by those two claims.

But that was AOB we were dealing with.

Well, quite so.

His knowledge of actual
cryptography was very much suspect, so it is 'possible' he could not
crack them himself.  Now, might he have found a rot-13 decryptor web
page to use, possibly.....

Indeed, or he might not have been quite so dense as he made out?

 

The point of SCOS was a little like the point of the scary devil
monastery.  If you could post in asr, it proved you were good enough
to post in asr, and if you could post and decrypt SCOS messages it
proved...  well, that you were good enough to take part in SCOS
conversations.

 Ah, so maybe I did miss a sublety in your intent -- beyond a "christmas
holiday fun exercise in decrypting a new system".

Isn't that just another way of saying the same thing? Well, okay, not exactly... but the kind of people it was meant for were the kind of people who'd have a crack at it.

 

But yes, being easy (but not /quite/ trivial) to crack was indeed at
the heart of SCOS.

 Do note that by "secure" I was referring to Claus' usual statements
about being able to communicate from "inside enemy lines in a hostile
environment".  I doubt very much you'd recommend SCOS or SCOS2 for such
usage.  I certianly would not recommend use of either variant for a
"behind enemy lines" or "hostile environment" situation.

You doubt correctly, of course, but frankly communicating from inside enemy lines isn't all that hard if you put your mind to it. Step 1: don't attract suspicion. Step 2: keep your messages short. Step 3: use something strong eg AES. Step 4: hide it in a bitmap or a MIDI or a WAV or whatever. Step 5: apply for a transfer back to Head Office because frankly life's too short to waste it pissing about with spying and stuff. But if you must, Steps 1-4 should see you through.
--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within