Re: Honest Question
The 'serious' encryption is universally the XOR function -- No, it isn't.
The WWII Enigma machine had billions and billions of combinations in the 'keyspace', but because they sent weather reports in standard format, and ended with "HEIL HILTER", the nearly-infinite rotor settings fell out each morning in about 20 minutes. -- Huge oversimplification. Known plaintext played a role, admittedly.
Far too many people stop and stare at the key length, do the 2^N math, and are dazzled by the billions of years. That's why they don't crack codes that way. -- Correct. But AES256 is specifically designed to be resistant to known plaintext attack. The keyspace is about 10^77. You need one heck of a speed up to get anywhere near billions of years here, basically you need to know a fatal flaw: a 10^36 (trillion trillion trillion) speed up wouldn't bring the keysearch within the bounds of feasibility.
"It would be extraordinary that the iPhone 5C just happens to represent the first uncrackable encryption system. So many have claimed that, all have failed so far." So far AES256 has resisted attacks fairly well.
You've made a lot of very authoritative sounding statements without supporting evidence.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
