Re: Bank transactions on Internet

Is it really that easy to break 40-bit? Don't you need access to a "fair amount of cpu power" to brute force crack 40bit?

I remember reading a recent paper at this URL: http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/bsa-final-report.ascii They mentioned a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), specifically a board-mounted AT&T Orca chip available for around $400. They said it could crack a 40-bit key in 5 hours (average). Sounds like anyone with root access on a major internet node could make a significant profit stealing credit card numbers. The FPGA sounds like a very interesting device, with quite a few legitimate uses... Has anyone out there seen one of these? (((cloaked sig file)))