Disclosed are methods and systems for frustrating statistical attacks. A
sender and receiver agree upon an encryption and integrity encoding
scheme. For each "real" data packet, the sender generates integrity
information, puts it in the packet, and then encrypts the packet using
the agreed-upon scheme. Every now and again, the sender generates a
"pseudo-data" packet encoded using a scheme different from the
agreed-upon scheme. When the real-data and pseudo-data packets arrive at
the receiver, they are decrypted using the agreed-upon scheme, and their
validity is verified using the integrity information. Verification
succeeds for real-data packets, and their data are accepted as valid.
Verification fails for pseudo-data packets, however, and their data are
discarded. An eavesdropper cannot differentiate pseudo-data from
real-data and so cannot help but use all of the packets in its analysis.
This mingling of pseudo-data with real-data frustrates the eavesdropper's
statistical attempt to uncover the agreed-upon encoding scheme.