IIRC, he also generally is able to hack once he receives direct physical access into a system (in general, defenses against that sort of attack are currently considered infeasible!) and even he is limited in the scope he can do. That's different from breaking encryption codes required for secured communications, which is the gist of my (narrow) argument.Ender wrote:It is but one example. I can think of a number of them - R2 as the uberhacker is a trope common in the series.
Er, why would you neccessarily have fixed stations? Are you telling me every point-of-sale terminal is going to be connected via its own fibre line to a central computer for quantum key exchange? It sure as hell doesn't look that way. And even then, the planetary authorities (or bankers or whatnot) will have to reconcile their records with institutions like IGBC over great distances, securely, and quickly.It also specifically states it is planetary in basis. On planets it is a whole different ball game - there quantum keys work, you have fixed stations, and it is easier to track. We already know planetary systems of commerce range from communism to planned economies to free market libertarianism to capitalism.
Unless transactions to the Alliance itself are done via physical means as well? I don't see a contradiction: smugglers and insurrectionists and crime lords are unlikely to use trackable electronic wire transfer systems. Why leave an electronic trail?So the government can eavesdrop to find out a smuggler paid off a crime lord, but the same government eavesdropping can't detect the funds flowing to support a rebellion?
While I'm not a mathematician, as someone formally trained in computer science, my instinct, at least, is to go for that P < NP. I would, to be blunt, be absolutely shocked if P = NP.I'm pretty sure that the truth of P vs NP problems is a position that only Kurneko or Surlethe are qualified to take. I know I'm not, my only point is that we are getting closer to an answer, and if there is one they are likely to know it. Given the fact that we expect competence and the low levels of computer security we see against their own tech in the series I am inclined to believe that P=NP (in-universe at least), because if that is not the case I would expect a higher performance.
Er, you know that not all PKI systems are vulnerable to Shor's algorithm or other exotic attacks? Various algorithms may well be in place to defend against exotic attacks (e.g. very large quantum computers) and continue secured communications.OTP/Symmetric stuff
Via NR physical security incompetence? Once physical attacks are achieved, it's over. Endgame.A claim I am not aware of any evidence for, and if was the case would make his claim of breaking it unimpressive as it was a weak code. Which is against the scene. Further, going back to ILKO in no way rebutts this point - Durga's little space monkeys broke in to the NR computers and stole the Death Star plans.
We are talking about something literally so easy a monkey can do it.
What my computer science training would tell me is that incompetence is far more likely. There is no technological reason a secured system cannot be built. And might Droma have intimate knowledge of Republican communications and navigational systems?You keep going back to ILKO at the expense of all the times we've seen ther crypto get shit on. Ulic Qel Droma took out the entire freaking Republic Navy in one stroke by hacking their comms and navigations signals to make them all crash into each other. These guys have weak computer securiy. Now is i because they are incompetent? Or is it because there is a technological reason behind it.
I still don't see the contradiction at all. R2 has the encryption key to communicate with the World Devastators. He also has a subset of the control protocol. He analyzes the later to form a more complete command protocol; it requires nothing on the part of reformulating the encryption level of the communications stack.Man, that is exactly what code breaking is, isn't it? A series of transmissions intercepted, analyzed, and the encryption scheme is determined? Yeah, that is exactly how you break a code. ANd we saw Luke give him the earlier commands. He had at most a few hours to do this.
Ok, I'm no cryptographer. I presumed that the encryption strength was the problem because everything I had read on the topic said so. If that was all wrong, what is the problem?
Design of entire secure systems is, and remains, the problem. Plenty of products out there have ironclad encryption algorithms but their output is still decipherable because the whole system was poorly designed and implemented. Encryption is just one link in the chain, and not necessarily the most important one.
So they have these algorithmic weaknesses in their high importance WMD national security codes, but not on your credit card? "Palpatine let people hack the system to amuse himself" is a stronger argument then that - we know the guy was a dick.
It wasn't INTENTIONAL, that's the point! It was SUPPOSED to be absolutely secure, clearly. And, yes, sometimes designs for absolutely secure communications fail, and fail miserably, while other systems succeed.