From: "Rev. Mark Grant" <mark@unicorn.com>
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 95 10:23:40 PDT
To: Tom Rollins <trollins@hns.com>
Subject: Re: Scientology tries to break PGP - and fails?
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9509081833.A4038-0100000@unicorn.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Fri, 8 Sep 1995, Tom Rollins wrote:

> I took a look at the FACTNet web page.  There is a file encrypted with
> PGP using the "-c" option.  They are asking for people to help guess
> the Pass Phrase.  Why would anyone bother if they had no clue that the
> file contained anything 'interesting'.

I can only assume one of two things - either this is a joke, as the
decrypted contents are nothing special as far as I can see (though
'interesting' in a sense), or that someone is very, very clever and
managed to hide two different messages in there with different
passphrases.

> If this is the file that the Co$ is trying to crack, then what the
> is being asked for is a pass phrase that can be handed to the Co$ that
> will pass the PGP valid key check and still not decrypt the data to
> anything usefull.

If this is the file the Co$ want to crack, they're a) clearly 
cryptographically inept, and b) the joke's clearly on them 8-).. Any 
hacker worthy of the name ought to get the passphrase within three 
attempts (I got it first time).

Note for paranoids: Of course, this message may just be a ruse to put 
the Co$ off the scent ;-)..

	Mark