Protecting text is 10–25 times faster than protecting native Newton objects. For a really quick encryption, just protect “Text of Plain” instead of “Native Notepad”
Session Keys
A session key is a temporary key created by combining your passphrase with a random number called a salt. The salt should be different for every object you protect with the same passphrase. nCrypt Light uses the number of seconds elapsed since January 1, 1904 as a salt for each message.
Armor
nCrypt uses Radix-64, a widely-used standard for converting binary data into printable text and back into binary. nCrypt Light uses it to make sure that protected notes can be exchanged via a wide variety of mail systems.
Drop-In Algorithms
You can install additional cryptographic algorithms into nCrypt Light. If written according to CustomWare’s specifications, additional algorithms appear as separate packages. Nor programming is required to install additional algorithms—just install them on your Newton and they will automatically be available for use with nCrypt.
If you are interested in writing algorithms for nCrypt, contact CustomWare.
Security Considerations
nCrypt Light uses a new, untested algorithm called the Stop and Go Message Digest Cipher to encrypt your data. Because this algorithm has not been subjected to years of review by the cryptographic community, we do not recommend that you rely on nCrypt for protection of valuable or sensitive information.
Also, the Newton architecture uses a garbage collection scheme which may cause your passphrase to linger in your Newton’s memory long after nCrypt erases it. Recovering the passphrase may be possible for someone with access to your Newton. This does not affect the security of items which are transmitted outside of your Newton (such as beams, mail, or flash cards).
Bugs/Suggestions
Please report all suggested features and bugs to CustomWare:
