Security researcher Steve Gibson of Security Now and Spinrite fame has invented what he thinks is the world’s first secure (not feasibly crackable with modern computers) encryption cipher that does not require a computer to use.

Inspired by the 1854 Playfair cipher, Gibson’s “Off The Grid” system is designed with passwords in mind: like SuperGenPass, you could have your own personal set of unique per-domain passwords, but you could generate them from a piece of paper in your wallet rather than a computer algorithm.

I don’t know if I could be bothered using this (I already use SuperGenPass), but it is a very interesting idea in cryptography. He goes over the history of this idea and how to use it in a 45-minute segment on this week’s Security Now #315 (start watching from 41:30). Or you can just read about it on the GRC website.