STEW Encryption uses wave forms to generate large soft keys for symmetric ciphers while using hard keys a fraction of the size.

The STEW (Symmetric Transient Encryption Wave) algorithm creates a symmetric encryption key of great length using a comparatively small amount of data. This is accomplished by using dynamic wave forms—waves whose equations change as the encryption is executed according to key-defined sub waves.
     The unique advantage of STEW Encryption is key size. STEW divides the concept of an encryption key into two units: soft and hard. The hard key is the actual key data which contains values used to encrypt or decrypt. Upon crypto execution these values are used to generate the soft key, the string of values that is actually used to alter data. The length of the hard key determines the difficulty of a brute force attack on the application. The length of the soft key determines the difficulty of a brute force attack on the encrypted data itself.
     The primary wave can be thought of as similar to the equation y = sin (w1 ^ w2 × w3) × w4 + w5. Waves can be nested recursively ad infinitum by setting each variable within a wave equal to the output of a lesser wave. By disrupting the cycle of the primary wave per cycle of the algorithm's execution the repetition of the wave is greatly reduced. Used correctly, STEW Encryption can create a soft key whose period is longer than the plaintext data, effectively eliminating the wave's repetition and creating cryptotext that is difficult to decode.

Stewart Smith filed a provisional patent claim for STEW Encryption in early 2001, followed by a full utility patent claim in early 2002. The latter claim was published on the US Patent and Trademark Office on 10 October 2001 (claim number US-2002-0146126-A1) and is awaiting approval from the patent review board.

Download Free PGP
For Mac and Windows. Allows en/decrypting and key exchange for free.

Whitfield Diffie
Credited with discovering the concept of public key cryptography in 1975.

The RSA Algorithm
The equation that makes e-commerce possible. Independently invented by British intelligence in 1950's (sworn to secrecy) and American civilians Rivest, Shamir and Adleman in 1976.

Phil Zimmermann
Inventor of PGP (an implementation of the RSA algorithm) and privacy activist.

Cellular Automata
A system for generating complexity and randomness based on simple initial conditions.

Use this form to test a low-level version of STEW. Try encrypting a repeating character. Notice the absence of repetition in the encrypted text.

Your decrypted text will appear here. Note that text can be re-encrypted multiple times and subsequently decrypted using the same number of steps to retrieve the plaintext.

This form was created to illustrate the concept of STEW Encryption. It is not a full implementation and does not use a secure server connection therefore it should not be used on sensitive data. For more on Stewart Smith and current STEWDIO projects see www.stewdio.org.