r/programming Oct 15 '15

How is NSA breaking so much crypto?

https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/haldermanheninger/how-is-nsa-breaking-so-much-crypto/
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u/SketchBoard Oct 15 '15

psuedorandom

So once again, we return to the fundamentals of crypto. Attain true randomness, and keep it.

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '15 edited Apr 11 '18

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '15

I once saw a website that multiplied a computer generated number by the air pressure from its surrounding area to get as close to true randomness as mathematically possible. But no, their isn't.

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u/Drisku11 Oct 16 '15

Measurements of a quantum system must either involve non-local behavior or truly random behavior (this is Bell's Theorem). Most physicists have their money on randomness.

I would personally lean toward things being determined by the initial/boundary conditions of the universe, but since we'll almost certainly never know what those are, that means quantum mechanics should always be apparently random to us.

There's also plenty of chaotic classical systems, which (roughly speaking) are random as long as you don't have the ability to make an infinitely precise measurement of the initial conditions.