When mailing or chatting with people, it had crossed my mind, what if, for simpl

Question

When mailing or chatting with people, it had crossed my mind, what if, for simple communication, someone would use an older encryption method (i.e., ENIGMA), to encrypt their message?

Would because of the uncommon method and name of the encryption, it be harder for eavesdroppers to understand what method is used? thus harder to decrypt messages?

In short: Is it "safe" to use an Unknown or Older encryption method to encrypt messages due to its uncommoness?

The encryption method is without doubt unsafe due to it's simplicity, but still takes some work to crack, if i'm right.

Explanation / Answer

Your method cannot be completely unknown, since both sender and receiver know it. Moreover, they run it; so either it is simple enough that they use it in their heads, or it exists as some piece of additional software, in which case the method is also known to their hard disks, the method designer and implementer, and github.

In fact, unknown methods do not exist.

Old encryption methods, however, do exist, but they are cumbersome to use and invariably inefficient. Enigma had no character for space... In his time, Edgar Allan Poe had made a specialty of breaking substitution ciphers, and boasted that none could resist the onslaught of his magnificent brain (to my knowledge, he was not proven wrong in this time).

Actually there is one old method that would ensure security: the good old One-Time Pad. But using it properly requires having, indeed, random pads at hand. Both sender and receiver would have to keep a booklet of random pad on them, and dutifully cross out the used elements. If you hold the book in your left hand and the pencil in the right hand, you will need to strap your smartphone on your knee and enter the message with your nose. Physical comedy notwithstanding, I fail to see how this could qualify as usable.

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