Importance
If an 'attacker' tries to break a cipher by brute-force (trying all possible keys until it finds the correct key) then key clustering will result in an easier attack on a particular cipher text. If there are N possible keys without any key clustering then the attacker will on average need to try N/2 keys to decrypt it and a worst case of trying all N keys. If there are two keys that are clustered then the average number of keys to try is reduced to N/4 (worst case is N-1 keys). If three keys cluster than average attempt is only N/6 attempts.
Read more about this topic: Key Clustering
Famous quotes containing the word importance:
“The importance of its hat to a form becomes
More definite. The sweeping brim of the hat
Makes of the form Most Merciful Capitan,
If the observer says so....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“A toothache, or a violent passion, is not necessarily diminished by our knowledge of its causes, its character, its importance or insignificance.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“The importance of a lost romantic vision should not be underestimated. In such a vision is power as well as joy. In it is meaning. Life is flat, barren, zestless, if one can find one’s lost vision nowhere.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 1, ch. 19 (1962)