I invented an encryption algorhythm today and used it to "hide" the information in an unused password I came up with. This was done on paper, not with a program. However, I am planning to start laying some code down for this today (in Haskell, partly as an exercise to help me learn the language). The question I'm interested in is: how easy will it be for you tech savvy folk at Daniweb to break my key? The encrypted string is:

uwiBmz24

The following information is offered on the problem:

1. The plain text is a combination of an English place or person name and a number.

2. The set used is [a-zA-Z0-9] in Perl regex notation. It runs from 0 for "a" to 61 for "9", in the order shown in the set.

3. The algorhythm used is based on finding all the factors of a hidden seed number. Breaking it would require the finding of all these factors. In this case the cipher strength is 5 bit and the key is 48 bit.

4. I am going to mirror this post with one on my home page in an attempt to get some more interesting content on the site :p . Feel free to remove this bit if you're a mod and you think it's a bit spam like.

5. The prize is: you'll have the option of trying the challenge again with a stronger cipher (once I can get a program to do the job for me) :) .

Steven.

By the way, I have no idea if the algorhythm I thought up was new or already exists. It is so simple that someone else probably thought it up and discovered it's major weakness (lack of cipher scaleability) years ago. In this case, I merely discovered the method (not invented as I said above). One wouldn't want to plagerise :) .

Interesting post.

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