I commonly hear statements along the lines of \"all cryptograms are crackable -

Question

I commonly hear statements along the lines of "all cryptograms are crackable - it's only a matter of time".

Is there a proof to show that any cryptogram is "crackable"? The proof may be of a more philosophical form rather than relying on mathematical proofs. I really don't know what to expect, but would be fascinated by anything that could show empirically that all cryptograms are crackable (as opposed to a proof that all known strategies for encryption are crackable)

Related: Is it enough to say that given enough time and resources, all brute-force attacks will eventually succeed?

Explanation / Answer

Consider that a cryptogram is only one very tiny piece of a secure message communication system. People focus unnecessarily on it because it contains and protects the actual secret, but every piece of the overall system has to be secure for the secret to remain protected.

That system includes not only the obvious technical problems (exchanging and protecting keys, computer hackers tampering with the equipment or network, traffic analysis, etc.) but with the people using it as well. They can be tricked into communicating with or trusting the wrong party, coerced into revealing their secrets, or fail to adequately guard whatever their responsibility is (weak passwords, casual behavior.)

I don't believe that AES will ever fall to a brute force attack. I don't think it's the weakest link in any of these systems, and therefore it's not profitable for an attacker to try, because there are so many other avenues to exploit.

So the answer to your question is no, not every cryptogram can be broken, primarily because they don't need to be. Instead, I would claim that almost every system can be broken, because every system deployed so far has had some weak components.

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