Encrypting a short string?

[Brian]

Hi Erik,

I really don't recommend the ROT13 cipher, as this is extremely easy to 
crack.  Most grade school kids could break this one in seconds.  ;-)

If the project that you are working upon has low security needs, (in 
other words, it's not a financial institution), than you might try 
something quite basic such as a Vigenere, transposition, or even a 
playfair.  These encryption methodologies are not secure and can be 
cracked by hackers.  Yet, for the average Joe, it will keep them away 
from the information / data stored inside.

One thing that seems to work well is to use to ciphers together.  For 
example, encrypt the data using the playfair cipher -- and then run a 
transposition cipher.  This will erase most of the "data signatures" 
that are needed for most hackers to crack the code.  At this point, 
brute force is what most people have to resort upon -- and it's mostly 
"governments" that have this ability.  ;-)

Best wishes!

Dusty
---


Bjoern Schliessmann wrote:
> Lie wrote:
> 
>> There is a simple encryption, called ROT13 (Rotate 13). This is
>> very unsecure for any cryptographical purpose, 
> 
> For enhanced security use TROT13 (triple ROT13).
> 
>> but enough to make uninformed user to think it's just a random
>> piece of letters. 
> 
> Security by obscurity doesn't work. If it needs to be protected,
> protect it well. If it doesn't need to, you don't need to obscure
> it at all.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> 
> Björn
>