From: Alan Olsen <alan@ctrl-alt-del.com>
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 1996 12:18:49 -0800 (PST)
To: snow <snow@smoke.suba.com>
Subject: Don Woods -- Crypto Creationist
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19961124114330.00dc0bec@mail.teleport.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 02:18 AM 11/24/96 -0600, snow wrote:

>     The algorythm cannot be considered secure until it has been 
>peer-reviewed. They refuse to release the algorythm for review, simply saying
>that "you can't break the code" therefore "it is secure". 

Furthermore, in "Real Science", the burden of proof is on the one making
the claim, not on the one everyone else to disprove it.

So far Mr. Wood has not provided any *proof* as to the substance of his
claims.  He has provided some of the more interesting rants I have seen of
late.  (Analysis of his style of posting is probibly better left to the
Psychceramics list than Cypherpunks.)

Until he posts the algorythm (or at least some basis as to why we should
trust his claims), his claims are worthless.  (As they would say on
talk.origins: "Evidence is the coin of the realm here!".)

The reason that names like Shamir and Rivest and the host of others are
trusted is because their material has been reviewed by the rest of the
cryptographic community for errors.  They have a reputation in the
community.  Mr. Woods does not.  He has to earn it.  So far he has not done
so...

---
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