1993-11-26 - Re: Comments on NSA (was: “Pyrrhus Cracks RSA?”)

Header Data

From: an52436@anon.penet.fi (Mephisto)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Message Hash: 5e3054b1e6536902c417ad06961e9fc2d3e87cc20e8469f2dd5543b79d1b76f7
Message ID: <9311262038.AA27804@anon.penet.fi>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 1993-11-26 20:38:56 UTC
Raw Date: Fri, 26 Nov 93 12:38:56 PST

Raw message

From: an52436@anon.penet.fi (Mephisto)
Date: Fri, 26 Nov 93 12:38:56 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Comments on NSA (was: "Pyrrhus Cracks RSA?")
Message-ID: <9311262038.AA27804@anon.penet.fi>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Well, doesn't it make some sense given the utility of prime numbers in
cryptography, that the NSA, or anyone else interested in breaking codes for that
matter, would have simply dedicated a computer or two to the long-term project
of determining all of the prime numbers under x bits long?  Granted this would
take a while, but the NSA has the time, the computers, and the other resources
necessary to do this.  Having all of these prime numbers would greatly reduce
the effort necessary to crack PGP/RSA-type cryptosystems which rely on prime
numbers.  It would reduce the number of factors a brute-force attack would
have to check dramatically.  Or am I completely off-base?


					Mephisto
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