Re: VMs: NSU review of Rugg (2003)...

[Gordon Rugg <g.rugg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Nick,

Thanks for the mention. One point of clarification: I'm not trying to prove
that the VMS is a hoax: my Cryptologia article actually describes two ways of
using tables and grilles for reversible encryption. However, I found no
evidence that either way had been used in the VMS. I've also made the point
that the table and grille method could be used to generate steganographic
padding to surround a meaningful ciphertext. At present, using Occam's razor,
the hoax hypothesis looks like the simplest explanation, but it's practically
impossible to rule out a deeply hidden ciphertext.

I think that a fruitful way forward would be to identify the parts of the VMS
which could be produced using tables and grilles, and see what's left; if
there is a ciphertext, it would probably be in the remaining bits.

Best wishes,

Gordon

Nick Pelling wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> Here's a link to another article (in English this time) by John Whitfield
> for Nature Science Update, an online part of Nature magazine. Like the SZ
> article, it was prompted by Gordon Rugg's recent pro-hoax
> VMs-as-Cardan-grille paper.
>
>         http://www.nature.com/nsu/031215/031215-5.html
>
> Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....
>
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