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SMOCK
Scalable Method of Cryptographic Key
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I don’t have a clue what that encryption terminology means either. Neither do I know the answer to the questions you posed. But I can gleefully imagine the panic of the derps if their COMMS were relying on this Smocking technique. Based on that and the Q drops saying “Panic,” I say there’s a 188% chance it could be spot on.
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LOL! Thanks for the vote of confidence, Wneighbor!

It sounds to me like SMOCK might be a modern day Enigma device - except instead of generating 1 code key, it generates 2.... or presumably more, as the technology would be developed.

So if I understand it, [and I truly don’t!] that means that if you are given a “SMOCKed” document, you would need two keys in order to translate it back into a readable message.

SO How would something like that WORK?

We are familiar with a simple substitution key of a number replacing a letter of the alphabet.

ie, A=1

That means you number A=1, B=2, C=3, etc.

I’m now out of my depth here, but presumably with a double code, you would have a way of randomly generating another key to use with the A=1 code. Let’s say our home made SMOCKER would give us F= A.

That code key would be a shifting of the alphabet so that A=F, B=G, C=H, etc.

Not sure what the actual SMOCK node tech would be, but there are probably different ways to use a double key. [I confess, in computer terminology, I’m not even sure what a node even IS... other than in very vague terms.]

A very simple example of how you could use two keys to encrypt a message could be a layering or nesting effect.

In our above simple key examples, you could put the message into the A=F shift. Then take those letters and make the A=1. You have a document then consisting of numbers.

In order to decrypt, it would be helpful to know which one to decrypt first, I would think. So you could decrypt the message from the numbers in front of you using the A=1.... Well, you then have a document of gibberish letters. It would be very tempting, not knowing there was another level of encryption, to dismiss the very correct and real solution you had hit upon.

If you KNOW the second key, then you can take those nonsense looking letters, and apply the A=F key, and get your message in the clear.

I may be completely missing the point here - and for sure the examples I’ve used are ridiculously simple for what the super computers are capable of doing, but this kind of thing is how, from my simple sandbox, I’m approaching a visualization of what could be at play here with an incredibly complicated SMOCK technology.

As I said, there are probably ways to use more than one key to encrypt a message. I could envision the use of number sequences such as pi, or Avagadros’ number to create a pattern which is somewhat random to create multiple keys at complication levels more difficult than the simple substitution examples. Again.... I’m leaving the baby pool here and getting into the seriously deep adult pool where people are diving from high dives and a few are even using scuba equipment,.... and I have no flotation device!