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By Pia Heikkila, 28 November 2001 14:15

NEWS Encryption technology has come under fire from proponents of rival socket layer technology, who claim it will always be vulnerable to hackers. Encryption has been traditionally seen as the most secure way to transport data as the technology relies on the exchange of secret data keys between agreed parties to unlock the message - but opponents claim these keys can be stolen too easily. Martin Neville-Smith, director of technology at digital rights management company Amino, said: "There will always be some mathematician who can crack the latest algorithm, whatever the case. "If you look at some of the keys used 10 years ago, they all have been cracked. Encryption is not a viable option to secure data, especially at large organisations." Neville-Smith said that socket layer software, which splits the traffic into tiny segments of data to make it impossible to eavesdrop, could become a viable alternative for companies wanting to make sure their secrets are safe. "It would be impossible to gather all the tiny pieces of data being sent out. It would be impossible to capture them, even with a decent network monitoring in place," he said. However, Tim Pickard, marketing director at encryption specialist RSA, said as technology develops encryption keys are getting harder to crack. "As the processing power increases, the keys become longer and more secure. It is already impossible to crack the current 1024 bit long keys, so whatever Amino is claiming, is simply not true," he said.