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Shannon's approach to secrecy

Assumption: Messages are sent according to some underlying probability distribution.


Definition An encryption system has perfect secrecy if and only if for all m and for all c,

P(M=m| C=c) = P(M=m).


Theorem The one-time pad has perfect secrecy.


Theorem If an encryption system has perfect secrecy, then #K >= # M.

Further work measures how much is lost by using shorter keys.



Kevin McCurley
1/23/1998