of chips.
“Faster now since we networked the machines, though, right?” Charlie shoved the long strands of his dark blond hair out of his eyes and scanned his gaze over the computers.
Marz nodded at Charlie. “Yeah. But it’s not fast enough.” He took a bite of his sandwich—turkey and Swiss on rye—and gave Charlie a thumbs-up. Chained to the computer station all day, Marz hadn’t eaten much else.
“Hey.” Wearing a gray t-shirt and jeans, Nick eyeballed them as he walked up to the desk, and his expression said he’d overheard some of their conversation. He grabbed a folding chair and sat backward on it, his arms resting on the backrest, then he glanced at the closest monitor. “So, can you explain this to me in layman’s terms? What needs to happen and what do you need to make it happen?”
Marz glanced to Charlie, who waved a hand as if to say, It’s all yours .
“Okay,” Marz said. “Let’s say you have data you need to send over the internet or on a disk, but you don’t want anyone to be able to read it if they intercept it. To protect the data, you encrypt it. There are various ways of doing this, but no matter which you choose, encryption is largely accomplished by putting a big-ass math problem between potential snoops and your data. The answer to that math problem is the password or key that deciphers the encryption. The bigger the math problem, the longer the answer and therefore the password, and therefore the more possible number sequences there are in the password. Make sense?” He munched a few chips.
A look of concentration on his face, Nick nodded. “Following so far.”
Charlie scooted his chair closer. “There are pretty much three ways to break a cryptograph,” he said. He held up his uninjured hand and counted off with his fingers. “First, you can attack the cryptography itself. That’s the code Marz is talking about.”
“Essentially, solve the math problem,” Nick said.
Nodding, Charlie continued. “Yes. Second, you can attack the software or hardware if you have a specific target in mind. And third, you can access relevant humans.”
“Meaning someone gives you the key,” Marz said.
“Okay,” Nick said. “So . . . I take it we only have that first option at hand.”
“Well, mostly,” Marz said. “We’d been thinking that the bracelet Becca’s father gave her might provide the passcode for the chip. That would’ve fallen under that human option. But no matter what we do, it’s not working.”
The bracelet was made up of a series of silver circles and bars. Charlie had recognized that those charms actually meant something—they translated to binary code. The string of circles and bars could also be read as zeroes and ones, but so far no joy.
Between the chip and the bear, at least they knew why the Churchmen had ransacked Becca’s house and tried to nab her. She had in fact had information from her father, she just hadn’t realized it. And they still hadn’t figured out how to access it.
Marz took a drink of water and set his cup back down. “So, yeah, mostly, we’re looking at solving the math problem. There are two main ways to do that. A brute-force attack, which simply means entering everypossible key sequence until you hit the correct one. And a side-channel attack, which means finding some extra source of information that can be exploited to break the system.”
“Like what? Gimme a concrete example,” Nick said.
“Okay,” Marz said. “Like the greasy smudges your fingers leave on the screen of your smartphone when you enter the passcode. Or the fingerprints you leave on an ATM’s keypad after you enter your pin. In both of those instances, the extra information of those fingerprints significantly narrows your search from a key involving ten possible digits with nearly four million permutations, zero through nine, to a key involving just four digits, which only has twenty-four possible permutations.”
“Do we have access to
“Faster now since we networked the machines, though, right?” Charlie shoved the long strands of his dark blond hair out of his eyes and scanned his gaze over the computers.
Marz nodded at Charlie. “Yeah. But it’s not fast enough.” He took a bite of his sandwich—turkey and Swiss on rye—and gave Charlie a thumbs-up. Chained to the computer station all day, Marz hadn’t eaten much else.
“Hey.” Wearing a gray t-shirt and jeans, Nick eyeballed them as he walked up to the desk, and his expression said he’d overheard some of their conversation. He grabbed a folding chair and sat backward on it, his arms resting on the backrest, then he glanced at the closest monitor. “So, can you explain this to me in layman’s terms? What needs to happen and what do you need to make it happen?”
Marz glanced to Charlie, who waved a hand as if to say, It’s all yours .
“Okay,” Marz said. “Let’s say you have data you need to send over the internet or on a disk, but you don’t want anyone to be able to read it if they intercept it. To protect the data, you encrypt it. There are various ways of doing this, but no matter which you choose, encryption is largely accomplished by putting a big-ass math problem between potential snoops and your data. The answer to that math problem is the password or key that deciphers the encryption. The bigger the math problem, the longer the answer and therefore the password, and therefore the more possible number sequences there are in the password. Make sense?” He munched a few chips.
A look of concentration on his face, Nick nodded. “Following so far.”
Charlie scooted his chair closer. “There are pretty much three ways to break a cryptograph,” he said. He held up his uninjured hand and counted off with his fingers. “First, you can attack the cryptography itself. That’s the code Marz is talking about.”
“Essentially, solve the math problem,” Nick said.
Nodding, Charlie continued. “Yes. Second, you can attack the software or hardware if you have a specific target in mind. And third, you can access relevant humans.”
“Meaning someone gives you the key,” Marz said.
“Okay,” Nick said. “So . . . I take it we only have that first option at hand.”
“Well, mostly,” Marz said. “We’d been thinking that the bracelet Becca’s father gave her might provide the passcode for the chip. That would’ve fallen under that human option. But no matter what we do, it’s not working.”
The bracelet was made up of a series of silver circles and bars. Charlie had recognized that those charms actually meant something—they translated to binary code. The string of circles and bars could also be read as zeroes and ones, but so far no joy.
Between the chip and the bear, at least they knew why the Churchmen had ransacked Becca’s house and tried to nab her. She had in fact had information from her father, she just hadn’t realized it. And they still hadn’t figured out how to access it.
Marz took a drink of water and set his cup back down. “So, yeah, mostly, we’re looking at solving the math problem. There are two main ways to do that. A brute-force attack, which simply means entering everypossible key sequence until you hit the correct one. And a side-channel attack, which means finding some extra source of information that can be exploited to break the system.”
“Like what? Gimme a concrete example,” Nick said.
“Okay,” Marz said. “Like the greasy smudges your fingers leave on the screen of your smartphone when you enter the passcode. Or the fingerprints you leave on an ATM’s keypad after you enter your pin. In both of those instances, the extra information of those fingerprints significantly narrows your search from a key involving ten possible digits with nearly four million permutations, zero through nine, to a key involving just four digits, which only has twenty-four possible permutations.”
“Do we have access to
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