"Crypto can't be a «bit broken». It can't be «mostly working». Either it's 100% correct, or you shouldn't have bothered doing it at all. The weakest link breaks

"Crypto can't be a «bit broken». It can't be «mostly working». Either it's 100% correct, or you shouldn't have bothered doing it at all. The weakest link breaks the whole chain." I completely agree. Ever seen a password hash mega-post on paste-bin? Bought to you by bad crypto. Saying "I don't know" is one of the hardest things to do, and also one of the most powerful. I applaud you for knowing your limits in this regard. I like to say crypto is like surgery, best left for the experts. You never want to "I kinda messed up that triple bypass," because there are major consequences for it. The same is true for virtually all aspects of cryptography. Thank you for this post! Edit: Here a link to a blog post that was discussed recently on HN that is pertinent: http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2013-06-17-crypto-science-not-engineering.html http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2013-06-17-crypto-science-no...