Linux On Steroids: DIY supercomputer software from Sandia

[Tim May]

On Wednesday, August 8, 2001, at 02:28 PM, Faustine wrote:

> Lots of interesting possibilities for cryptographic applications, I'm
> sure...
>
> Massively Parallel Computational Research Laboratory
> http://www.cs.sandia.gov/


Except when was the last time you heard of a Cypherpunks-interesting 
cipher being broken with _any_ amount of computer crunching?

(The "challenges" broken by a couple of our own list members over the 
past several years were all weak ciphers by modern standards, or had key 
lengths way below even the recommended lengths of the day. Increasing 
the key lengths by just several bits ups the work factor by a factor of 
ten or so. Increasing it to recommended levels ups the work factor to 
the level of "not all the computers that will ever be built in all of 
the galaxies of the universe" will be able to brute-force a crack.)

There are indeed some cryptographic uses for big computers, but not much 
of real interest here. Some voice- and traffic-analysis stuff, but not 
cracking modern ciphers.


--Tim May