IBM Corp researchers says they have developed a virtually uncrackable encryption mechanism they say can generate random codes for scrambling the information transmitted in electronic communications, each of which is as difficult to crack as the hardest instance of the underlying mathematical problem itself. The mechanism is said to be an improvement over other public key encryption schemes which currently can’t guarantee that each code is as difficult to crack as another and therefore make a system inherently weak. However while the security of a system depends in part on how difficult it is for a hacker to crack the code, it also depends how easy it is for the hacker to break into the system the first place. Public key encryption works by scrambling information using a publicly known numerical key that can be decoded by a private key known only to the recipient. The IBM researchers have supposedly cracked a mathematical problem that’s defied solution for 150 years. The system could make electronic commerce safer and more appealing to users, although its implementation in any usable form is thought to be a long way off.
Content from our partners
