I am contemplating changing one of my client's business processes. A long story, but it involves encrypting data that will be picked up via ftp.

I will be the creator of the encrypted data (Sorry -- using Perl here!), and I have many modules to choose from. The data will be decrypted in a Visual Basic program written by someone at company X. This means that am somewhat limited in what methods I choose, as I assume that X won't want to spend a lot of time coding up a really secure algorithim.

In preliminary discussions with X last year I suggested the XOR method of encrypting as a good starting point. In hindsight, this suggestion wasn't that hot, as XOR encryption is fairly simple to crack. The programmer loved the idea and immediately coded up a solution. Now that it's in place, I don't know that X will want to write something better.

I have done some testing and found that XOR encryption appears to get better with a longer, more complex key. However I would like to be confident that the encryption method is secure.

• How secure is XOR encryption?
• How secure is an ftp process, assuming that the file size and number are low -- less than a minute's connect time?
• Would Secure FTP be a more secure choice?

Thanks Monks.

--t. alex

"Nyahhh (munch, munch) What's up, Doc?" --Bugs Bunny

Updated Showed where I was using Perl. Sorry drewbie.

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.