I don't like this attitude. It's really anti-hacker. Of course, the world is littered with cryptosystems that some foo thought would be secure and wasn't. XOR

I don't like this attitude. It's really anti-hacker. Of course, the world is littered with cryptosystems that some foo thought would be secure and wasn't. XOR isn't encryption. ;) I would suggest that hackers interested in crypto take a sober and unafraid look at the history of crypto and then spend time breaking ciphers, "hacking" in all senses of the word. Read the crypto papers and work on the advanced math until you really and truly grasp "all the things". Pour those 10K hours in.... Crypto is hard. Doing it mostly right requires humility and hard study, and then you have a good chance of being wrong. Nothing to be afraid of if you understand the situation and understand the years and years it takes to really become good at it...