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On Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:28:04 -0500, Chris Walters wrote: |
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> >> I feel very confident saying "no known way" as cracking that |
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> >> puzzle has been the Holy Grail of maths prizes for 40 years and |
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> >> no-one has announced success. Seeing as mathematicians are a vain |
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> >> lot, and the one that accomplishes this feat with be showered with |
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> >> honour and glory for all time (making Einstein look like a child), |
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> >> it's a safe assumption that it hasn't been done yet. |
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> > |
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> > Unless he works for GCHQ/NSA or any other government's security |
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> > services. |
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> Possible, but not too likely*. RSA keys are based on two very large |
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> prime numbers and their composite. The two primes are hundreds of |
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> digits in length, and are used to generate the cipher (public) key, and |
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> the decipher (secret) key. After which their composite is found and |
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> the two primes are discarded. |
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I know it is extremely unlikely that anyone could crack it. My point was |
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that if someone did crack it, they would not necessarily shout about it. |
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If they worked for the security services, that would not want others to |
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know their encryption was insecure. Britain was selling Enigma machines |
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to their "friends" for decades after it was broken. |
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> While I am sure the NSA has its share of cryptologists, and |
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> cryptographers, I would hazard to say that the Navy has more, and so |
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> probably does the CIA/MI5 (or is it MI6 now?). |
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GCHQ, as mentioned above :) |
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-- |
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Neil Bothwick |
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I am Zaphod of Borg. Now, where's the coolest place to be assimilated... |
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