webcam encryption beats quasar encryption

[James Muir]

Heyman, Michael wrote:
> Internet webcam signals from webcams could emerge as an 
> exotic but effective new tool for securing terrestrial 
> communications against eavesdropping.
 >
 > <snip>

Kidding aside, there are some interesting theoretical results about 
ciphers that utilize a plentiful, publicly available source of random 
bits.  See:

http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/context/238746/0

I think the "Rip Van Winkle cipher" was mentioned in Schneier's Applied 
Cryptography.  Also, I vaguely recall another news story (1999?) that 
reported on an encryption technique that hypothesized a stream of random 
bits generated by an orbiting satellite.

"Quasar encryption" is likely impractical, but there could be more to it 
than you think.  However, I did think "web cam encryption" was funny. :-)

-James

-- 
James Muir, jamuir at scs.carleton.ca
School of Computer Science, Carleton University
http://www.ccsl.carleton.ca/~jamuir

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