The Conversation - Cracking bin Laden’s computer code: unlikely
Assuming bin Laden’s files are indeed encrypted using AES-256, the only way I can see to break the encryption would be to use a painstaking “brute force” technique.
This would involve trying all of the 2256 possible encryption keys. This works out at 1.16x1077 different codes to try (the number one with 77 zeroes after it).
This process would require hundreds of thousands of specially-built machines, the likes of which do not currently exist. Even if they did, we would need many, many times the length of the universe’s lifespan to carry out the search.
In other words, it’s not going to happen.
