Hal wrote:
This, from a sidebar, is really surprising: "In contrast, public keys allow the overt publication of an encryption key, because decryption keys can only be derived through a mathematically difficult process, such as large prime-number factoring. Contrary to popular belief, the NSA can decrypt public keys of most practical key sizes." I wonder what this means? If it is a claim that the NSA can factor 1024 bit moduli that would certainly come as a big surprise. If they are saying that they can do 512 bits that would be more believable although of interest. It is strange that the author would include a statement like this without attribution or evidence.
Another quote from the article posted elsewhere said that, "PGP, which is based on the Diffie-Hellman public-key technology developed in the 1970s..." This is technically true, since all public-key work (including RSA) is based to some extent on DH. It could be, however, that the author is confusing public-key technology with Diffie-Hellman public-key in particular, which (as I understand it) is not particularly secure.