Originally Posted by
Steph3n
that won't do much, I could break that in a matter of seconds, and the computing power the govt could muster if they really wanted your data it would be nano seconds
How about a bet. I'll send you a single page .txt file encrypted using an algorithm of my choice, which I will declare (no security through obscurity) - if you crack it in 24 hours (about 10,000 times longer than you claim it will take you) I'll pay you $5k; if you fail, you pay me $5k. Money in escrow before we start.
If we exclude any basic errors, like leaving cached copies of keys lying around (as in the HDDVD case) then even 3DES is reasonably safe for a few years yet, and barring some breakthrough in crypto math or computing power AES is safe for the forseeable future.