From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!allegra!don
Newsgroups: net.math
Title: random numbers
Article-I.D.: allegra.1252
Posted: Fri Apr 22 17:53:27 1983
Received: Mon Apr 25 06:10:24 1983

Subject: random numbers

Volume 2 of Knuth should be consulted if you want random number
generators.  Random bit munging is not likely to be good.  If you want
to use pseudo-random numbers for cryptography, beware!  Linear shift
registers are known to be worthless for cryptography now a days.
Non-linear congruential methods might be good, but a lot of the work on
them is probably secret.

Since the UNIX crypt command was broken recently, I have started using
DES to encrypt files.  It is unfortunate that people have not taken to
heart the issue of information privacy enough to agree on secure file
encryption and encrypted mail protocols.  The UNIX secretmail is also
dubious since the knap-sack method it uses is crumbling rapidly under
the assult of modern cryptographers.