FITUG e.V. Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft

NY Times article on Shamir's public key breaking mac

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Sat, 1 May 1999 18:35:17 -0700
To:            cryptography@c2.net
From:          Martin Minow <minow@pobox.com>
Subject:       NY Times article on Shamir's public key breaking machine

<http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/05/biztech/articles/02encr.html>

gives a very superficial overview of a paper to be presented Tuesday

that describes a hardware attack on public key cryptography.


"Researchers said that if his machine worked it would mean
that

cryptographic systems with keys of 512 bits or less -- that is, keys
less

than about 150 digits long -- would be vulnerable in the future, an

exposure that would have seemed unthinkable only five years ago. The
longer

1,024-bit keys that are available today would not be vulnerable at
present."


Martin Minow

minow@pobox.com