International Association
for Cryptologic Research

For decades now, mathematical complexity is being regarded as the sole means to creating a sufficient distance between a ciphertext and its generating plaintext. Alas, mathematical complexity operates under the irremovable shadow of stealth cryptanalysis. By its nature mathematical complexity is vulnerable to smarter mathematicians and better equipped adversaries, which is a sufficient motivation to explore an alternative means to project security. Applying the Innovation Solution Protocol such an alternative has been found: randomness. Not as next to mathematical complexity, rather as its replacement. Unlike complexity, randomness is not vulnerable to smarter mathematicians and better equipped adversaries. It removes the shadow under which all modern ciphers operate by proposing a framework wherein the message transmitter may apply arbitrary quantities of ad-hoc randomness with which to secure a transmission over a secret key of arbitrary large size; and where only a part thereto may participate in any instance of encryption; and where security is increased in proportion to the amount of randomness involved. Handling the large quantities of randomness is 'messy' and inconvenient, albeit, the user, not the cipher designer, decides how much inconvenience to put up with in order to build sufficient security to meet the pressing threat. With sufficient randomness, transmission security may exceed One-Time-Pad (OTP) in as much as even the size of the plaintext is not determinable. Ciphers that shift the security responsibility to the user are called "Trans-Vernam", honoring Gilbert S. Vernam's OTP, or "Tesla Ciphers", reflective of the fact that Tesla offered a new power source for the automotive industry, much as the Tesla ciphers offer a new security source for cyberspace. The Tesla cryptographic modality has its security substantiated with a mathematical proof. It is Quantum ready and AI resistant. It is battery-friendly, and ultra fast. Albeit this proposal brings to question a long-established cryptographic premise, with all that is involved.