Yeah, we fucked up here and are getting rightfully flamed. A more accurate way to say this would be something like: 1024-bit RSA is as hard to crack as three nested iterations of 56-bit DES. The key length for symmetric-key cryptosystems isn't comparable to the key length for public key cryptosystems. And now that I'm at it, I'm now told that it was a Captain Marvel decoder ring. Apologies, all. -Declan
That key length stuff is just so much gibberish to those playing without a scorecard, so let me drill down on it for you. Basically, the longer the key length, the harder it is for a message to be broken by "brute force" automated attacks. Current U.S. laws prohibit the export of any encryption device with a key length longer than 40-bits, or roughly the equivalent of Captain Crunch decoder ring. For hardcore math types, I'm told that a 1024-bit key length is 10 to the 296th power more difficult to break than 40 bits.
I sure do wish they'd get things like this a bit more accurate... Oh, well, I suppose it doesn't really matter...
Jim Bell jimbell@pacifier.com