What's the latest in factoring?

17 Dec 2003

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Hi all,

First, I want to say that because I've heard that traffic on this list is
heavy, and I don't have time to file away 40 messages a day, you must
write to me personally in order for me to see the message.  My PGP key is
provided at the end of this message.

What is the latest factoring breakthrough (at least in the civilian
world?)  I had heard a while back that the most recent event was
accomplished by Samuel Wagstaff of Purdue University, whose team factored
(3^349-1)/2, which is a 167-digit number (about 552 bits).  Is there
anything more recent?  Also, whereas 1024 bits was the commonly accepted
threshhold for key lengths more than two years ago, what's the threshhold
now?  Because I have DOS (and like it) I use PGP 2.63ix, when should I
retire my 1024-bit key?  I don't expect anybody to answer that I should
do so immediately, but can someone give me an idea on what people are
doing in regard to key length?

Sincerely,

Alan Tu

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Type Bits/KeyID    Date       User ID
pub  1024/E5D915E1 1997/04/27 Alan Tu <atu5713@compuserve.com>
                              Alan Tu <102534.2165@compuserve.com>

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