Shannon's equivocation, the conditional entropy of key or message with respect to a specific ciphertext, is the primary indicator of the security of any secrecy system, in that when key equivocation H E (K) or message equivocation H E (M) attain log 0 (or 1) under a brute-force attack, the system is compromised and has no security. We propose a simplistic equivocation definition of security which distinguishes between “secure/unsolvable” and “insecure/solvable” encipherments. Whilst equivocation may be used practically in a passive manner to cryptanalyse finite-length key “insecure/solvable” secrecy systems to determine the length of ciphertext required to compromise the secrecy system, the invention in this patent offers a cryptographic design framework which allows for the equivocation of finite-length key systems to be actively engineered using equivocation augmentation, such that the residual key and message equivocation of any cryptosystem may be continuously augmented at a faster rate than it is lost, effectively ensuring that equivocation can never attain log 0. In short, it allows for the encryption of any length of message with any finite length key into a ciphertext with “secure/unsolvable” security characteristics. Alternatively, it allows for the cryptographic engineering of information theoretic security in all finite length key systems. The invention is primarily aimed at solving two major problems: (a) a viable practical security solution against future quantum computing/artificial intelligence threats (the QC/AI problem), and (b) a viable practical security solution to the privacy/national interest dichotomy problem, in that it allows for the engineering of security systems which are capable of simultaneously supporting both the absolute privacy of individual users and the security interests of the user group at large. Various methods, apparatuses, and systems are described which allow for the implementation of a “secure/unsolvable” secrecy system which is fast, extensible, simple to implement in hardware and software, and able to be incorporated by or with any existing security solution or cryptographic primitives.
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