From: Adam Back <aba@dcs.ex.ac.uk>
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1997 15:10:57 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: (fwd) DES challenge organisation
In-Reply-To: <199702152256.WAA00403@server.test.net>
Message-ID: <199702152302.XAA00412@server.test.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Thomas S <ths@fh28.fa.umist.ac.uk> writes:
> [...]
>
> 5. The prize money will be split equally between Gutenberg and EFF.
>    There is a possibility of using part of it for stickers or
>    something similar, but don't count on it.

Not a good idea.

How can this be enforced?  The RSADSI DES challenge is open to all
comers, and how do you prove that someone who finds the key found it
through this group effort?

I have a suspicion many people would be tempted to fill in the RSA
challenge form and email it in themselves.  $10,000 is a fair amount
of money.

I know I would be tempted.  I have been running Svend Olaf's DES code,
and my intention in the unlikely event that I hit the key had been to
claim the money.

How does it hurt the publicity if the actual individual who finds the
key takes the money?  Surely it adds excitement to the story?

In fact it would provide people with a possibly more powerful
incentive to try to break the key in the first place -- in the hopes
of winning the prize!  $10,000 means more to a lot of people than
opposing ITAR/EAR, and participating in a technical challenge.  To
start with a lot of people who's CPUs we could be using don't even
know what ITAR/EAR are!

> We hope to get a working system up and running ASAP. The fact alone
> that DES is seriously challenged (with a reasonable time frame)
> should give us quite some publicity (by the time the system is
> ready). If we can make use of that, we will have significantly more
> client than for the 48 bit key.

I would have thought announcing that $10,000 can be won by running
easy to use windows software on a wide selection of newsgroups would
get you lots of CPUs!

Adam
--
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