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From: desj@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (David desJardins)
Newsgroups: net.crypt
Subject: Re: What is it really like?
Message-ID: <13719@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Fri, 9-May-86 18:53:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.13719
Posted: Fri May  9 18:53:08 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 14-May-86 01:37:35 EDT
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Reply-To: desj@brahms.UUCP (David desJardins)
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In article <507@ucsfcca.UUCP> dick@ucsfcca.UUCP (Dick Karpinski) writes:
>Why are one time pads impractical in military field communications?
>If a CD ROM holds 500 megabytes of key in a drive like the ones that
>joggers are happy to wear on their belts,  I see no hard problems.

   Well, the problem is that you have a network with 1e6 or so nodes,
any subset of which should be able to communicate in a secure manner.
If every user has the same key, then each must have enough for *all*
of the messages, even ones in which they do not participate.  Even
500 Mb would last about 1 minute.  And if every user has a different
one-time pad, then they cannot all communicate with one another.

   --- David desJardins