[TrunkCom] can we decode encryption?

[Brian J Cathcart]

On Thu, 2 Nov 2006 09:02:28 -0800 (PST) James Brummett
<the_scannerman at yahoo.com> writes:
> Hate to bust everybody bubble but it been
> done already.
>     By 10 college students with the government
> blessing and help.
> So don't say it can't be done.
>    They said the same thing with another scrambling
> technology.
> It only cost $29.95 to do it not millions or billions
> of dollars worth of equipment. 
 
James, I'd be more than happy to have you burst my bubble, if you can
show me the reference you are citing (weblink, etc).  Was it DVP?  DES? 
DES-XL?  What key strength?  etc.  The best I could find online (at
http://lasecwww.epfl.ch/memo/memo_des.shtml) describes using 18 computers
to break one DES key in 4 days.  As I stated in my post, you are not
going to be able to put that kind of computing power into a scanner, not
in the near future anyway.  There's no doubt that one day they'll be able
to, but by then you'll be dealing with AES or some other form of
encryption and you're in the same situation, and again you also have the
legal issue.  It's simply misleading to make a new scanner user think
there's information out there that will enable him to be able to decode
encryption.  Bottom line...decoding encryption is illegal and not
technically feasible for a scanner.
 
For Jim in NJ, there was no intention of trying belittle you, at least
not from me.  I assumed you knew more than you did about these systems
and should have started first with the basics.

--

The Scanner Dude
Brian J. Cathcart - KE4PMJ
South Florida Frequency & Trunking Guide 10th Edition
Available in both Printed and CD-ROM format
http://www.scannerdude.com