I invented an encryption algorhythm today and used it to "hide" the information in an unused password I came up with. This was done on paper, not with a program. However, I am planning to start laying some code down for this today (in Haskell, partly as an exercise to help me learn the language). The question I'm interested in is: how easy will it be for you tech savvy folk at Daniweb to break my key? The encrypted string is:

uwiBmz24

The following information is offered on the problem:

1. The plain text is a combination of an English place or person name and a number.

2. The set used is [a-zA-Z0-9] in Perl regex notation. It runs from 0 for "a" to 61 for "9", in the order shown in the set.

3. The algorhythm used is based on finding all the factors of a hidden seed number. Breaking it would require the finding of all these factors. In this case the cipher strength is 5 bit and the key is 48 bit.

4. I am going to mirror this post with one on my home page in an attempt to get some more interesting content on the site :p . Feel free to remove this bit if you're a mod and you think it's a bit spam like.

5. The prize is: you'll have the option of trying the challenge again with a stronger cipher (once I can get a program to do the job for me) .

Steven.