CDR: Swedish Team Cracks Tough Computer Codes (was Re: NewsScan Daily, 12 October 2000 ("Above The Fold"))

[R. A. Hettinga]

They must mean RSA512, of course.

Given various people's pings to me about the death of 128-bit RC4, :-),
someone should tell the New York Times, and others, about the difference
between symmetric and asymmetric ciphers...

Cheers,
RAH

At 9:12 AM -0700 on 10/12/00, NewsScan wrote:


> SWEDISH TEAM CRACKS TOUGH COMPUTER CODES
> A team of Swedish computer enthusiasts has succeeded in deciphering 10
> increasingly difficult codes presented by author Simon Singh in his
> bestseller, "The Code Book." Singh, who has a doctorate in physics at
> Cambridge University in the U.K., took two years to develop the brain
> teasers with Dr. Paul Leyland, who works for Microsoft in Cambridge. The
> codes, which took the Swedes the equivalent of 70 years of computer time to
> decrypt, ranged from ciphers dating back to ancient Greece through the
> famed Nazi Enigma code machine used in World War II. The team was awarded a
> check for $15,000 for their efforts. Team leader Fredrik Almgren said the
> task was extremely daunting and that he and his fellow scientists were
> tempted to abandon the effort several times: "The first stages were very
> simple but at one point we thought we wouldn't get any further than stage
> eight. When you do come to the 10th stage it is a question of heavy
> mathematics and rather difficult algorithms that I don't even claim to
> understand myself." (Reuters/New York Times 12 Oct 2000)
> http://partners.nytimes.com/2000/10/12/technology/12R-CODE2.html

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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
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