So Assange, who has actually developed part of Truecrypt, doesn't understand encryption. In that case I wonder what the rest of the tc team is smoking to let him contribute :p
The use of AES is clever. It will be crackable at some point in the future for sure - everyone knows this. I'd be willing to put 20 bucks on NSA already having cracked it anyway, even if that makes me one of those tinfoil hat types, but that would make no difference to Wikileaks - in fact it probably plays into Wikileaks' hands.
The fact that the insurance file probably -will- be cracked at some point in the future means that the information will ultimately be public. Perhaps this encourages more prompt action against Assange but it's a matter of weighing up this risk with the perhaps higher priority of eventually releasing the information - even if every mechanism of distributing the key in case of emergency fails, it will be cracked ONE day. I think this strategy is easily plausible enough.
One could claim that Assange's strategy is poor - certainly being under house arrest hasn't been empowering - but saying Assange is ignorant of encryption is ridiculous.
Hell, it would not have even been a bad idea for Assange to send them a copy of the key when he initially released the insurance file. If the insurance file has anything of substance, it would work better if they know what is in it. Giving them the key would be giving them proof that you are not bluffing.
The use of AES is clever. It will be crackable at some point in the future for sure - everyone knows this. I'd be willing to put 20 bucks on NSA already having cracked it anyway, even if that makes me one of those tinfoil hat types, but that would make no difference to Wikileaks - in fact it probably plays into Wikileaks' hands.
The fact that the insurance file probably -will- be cracked at some point in the future means that the information will ultimately be public. Perhaps this encourages more prompt action against Assange but it's a matter of weighing up this risk with the perhaps higher priority of eventually releasing the information - even if every mechanism of distributing the key in case of emergency fails, it will be cracked ONE day. I think this strategy is easily plausible enough.
One could claim that Assange's strategy is poor - certainly being under house arrest hasn't been empowering - but saying Assange is ignorant of encryption is ridiculous.