Author:  Simon Singh
Viewed: 29 - Published at: 10 years ago

it requires a great deal of time, effort and money to create a random key. The best random keys are created by harnessing natural physical processes, such as radioactivity, which is known to exhibit truly random behavior. The cryptographer could place a lump of radioactive material on a bench, and detect its emissions with a Geiger counter. Sometimes the emissions follow each other in rapid succession, sometimes there are long delays-the time between emissions is unpredictable and random. The cryptographer could then connect a display to the Geiger counter, which rapidly cycles through the alphabet at a fixed rate, but which freezes momentarily as soon as an emission is detected.

( Simon Singh )
[ The Code Book: The Science of ]
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