Scary Tales from the Cryptologist

Source: Business Week

In 1995, Paul Kocher caught the attention of information-security experts when he unveiled a method for cracking a handful of commonly used computer codes by timing how long it took for computers to process requests using those code algorithims. Today, Kocher remains a prominent voice in the cryptography field. As head of Cryptography Research, he and his small band of San Francisco-based cryptographers are paid by banks and credit-card companies to "hack" their products in hopes of uncovering system vulnerabilities.
Far from being an unqualified believer in cryptography, however, Kocher is deeply concerned. What worries him is that the tried and true methods, which rely on increased computing power to crack codes, will fall behind in their capacity to solve information-security problems. I recently spoke with Kocher about encryption's looming challenges.