[TippeX]

yupp, theres higher than 1024 bit too
just under some laws > 256 can be deemed as 'military' grade encryption, and 'exporting' it out of the country can be somewhat problematic..

best encryption is one you code / research yourself..
all the shit like blowfish, aes and so on are public domain, which means the security forces have had time to play with them and most likely have also developed ways and means to decrease the cracking time..

bruteforcing yes, but intelligent bruteforcing, using rainbow tables, various hashing algorythms and so on... as well as distributed network cracking...

if you can code a secure (ie: you test your code) encryption, and dont spread it, then its very hard to break as if you ever have the unfortunate luck to meet the security forces / cops and so on they wont have encountered your encryption, so they're back to square one....

more characters = more time..

(amount of characters * amount of characters)-1 effectively to brute force..
for all the combinations... now say u then bring in a data file as the encryption key... like i did... 2 mb data key file (stored remotely or on usb stick or whatever)... and a password ... and some other stuff... i wish you all the luck in the world...

mitnick isnt all he's cracked up to be (no pun intended)... and yes he was used to scare others...

and any code crackable sure.. within time...
time is to all extents and purposes infinite, so the statement stands, but when you do the maths... its another story..

ie: you'll probably be dead, and your kids, and your kids kids......