From: jalicqui@prairienet.org (Jeff Licquia)
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 95 09:41:44 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: EE Times on PRZ
Message-ID: <9501181741.AA20208@firefly.prairienet.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Hal wrote:
>This, from a sidebar, is really surprising:  "In contrast, public keys
>allow the overt publication of an encryption key, because decryption keys
>can only be derived through a mathematically difficult process, such as
>large prime-number factoring.  Contrary to popular belief, the NSA can
>decrypt public keys of most practical key sizes."  I wonder what this
>means?  If it is a claim that the NSA can factor 1024 bit moduli that
>would certainly come as a big surprise.  If they are saying that they can
>do 512 bits that would be more believable although of interest.  It is
>strange that the author would include a statement like this without
>attribution or evidence.

Another quote from the article posted elsewhere said that, "PGP, which is
based on the Diffie-Hellman public-key technology developed in the 1970s..."
This is technically true, since all public-key work (including RSA) is based
to some extent on DH.  It could be, however, that the author is confusing
public-key technology with Diffie-Hellman public-key in particular, which
(as I understand it) is not particularly secure.