Trusting Bruce Schneier is risky business - just ask Jack Bauer

In last night's episode of Fox's thriller show, 24, there is a reference to the Blowfish algorithm which was designed by Bruce Schneier. On the show, an email message that contains the expected location of Jack Bauer is encrypted using Blowfish. The FBI intercepts the message and must decrypt it if they are to find him. I was curious to see what the 24 writers had up their sleeve. The answer: the designer of Blowfish put in a back door which was known to a former CTU operative. The FBI had leverage over the former CTU man because his wife was being held and faced at least 15 years in prison. The cipher was broken in seconds. Thanks a lot, Bruce! Thanks to your back door, Bauer is now being chased as a wanted man ... at least until next week.