From: nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous)
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 18:17:39 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Applied Cryptography Questions
Message-ID: <199511301008.LAA15993@utopia.hacktic.nl>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


A couple questions about Applied Cryptography (Second Edition)

1. What on earth is a Neural Net?

2. Consider the Chinese Lottery attack vs a processor bank.

   ADVANTAGES
     Distributed computing, no easy bombing target.

   DISADVANTAGES
     39% inefficient
     Need specialized hardware [for speed] or transmission of alogrithms
       for any specific alogrithm
     Not on all the time
     If value(crack) * cracks/chip > cost of chip, then why not have
       the gov buy the chips? Its probably cheaper that way.

3. How does one cryptoanalyize a Feistel Network? Is there a general
   method?

4. Does there exist an n such that a keyspace of 2^n is trivial to crack
   [ie a matter of miniutes] on a PC but is difficult to crack for a 
   big commercial company or even a major government? [this question
   relates to Merkle's puzzles, when a 40-bit key seems a bit weak.]

5. Is there an errata yet?