Feasible Chaotic Encryption

Encryption schemes that hide messages in chaotic signals have attracted attention in recent years as a means to transmit information securely (Update 170, 361), but most work has been either theoretical or strictly limited to laboratory experiments. Now a group of researchers in Beijing have managed to demonstrate chaotically encrypted, two-way voice transmission through the Beijing Normal University computer network. With a 32-bit encryption structure, a 750 MHz personal computer can encode information at speeds comparable to the widely recognized Advanced Encryption Standard, and support voice communication at typical telephone speeds and quality. While no encryption technique is absolutely impenetrable, the researchers (Hu Gang, Beijing Normal University, 86-10-62208420) explain that their communication scheme is reasonably secure (it would take an intruder armed with a personal computer more than a million times the lifetime of the universe to break the code) as well as being feasible in realistic, commercial settings. (S. Wang et al., Physical Review E, December 2002.)