From:    George Hannah                          Area: Public Key Encryption
To:      Jess Williams                          11 Sep 94 17:14:56
Subject: Re: ENCRYPTION...                      UpdReq 

 -=> Quoting Jess Williams to George Hannah <=-
 JW> They Cracked ONE RSA Key that used a key size of 129 DIGITS.
 JW> If they generated a second key of the same length it would probably
 JW> take them about the same amout of time and work to crack the second 
 JW> key.  PGP lets you choose key size up to "about" 1024 BITS.
 That makes sense. The article made it sound like these 2 129 digit
 numbers were an integral part of the algorithm. But I take it they
 would be part of the key. No ones going to spend 6 months cracking my
 key - it's just not worth it.
 JW> I'm not sure how many digits a 1024 bit key would be but I know that
 JW> it is substantially larger than 129 digits.  Someone wrote a
 Somewhere around 292.5 digits. One decimal digit seems to take approx.
 3.5 bits, the 129 digit number would be roughly 450 bits using the same
 formula.
 JW> conversion chart at one time.  I was told that everytime you
 JW> lengthen a key by a bit you square the  amount of time (roughly)
 JW> needed to crack it.
 I think it would double it. Since any number will hold 2^^bits values,
 you double the number of possible values, and therefore the amount of
 time to crack it.
... Canadian myth #1: Canadians end every sentence with eh. Eh?


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From:    Richard Speidel                        Area: Public Key Encryption
To:      ALL                                    12 Sep 94 15:41:00
Subject: SecureNet                              UpdReq 

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Can anyone tell me where the nearest SecureNet support BBS is?


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Version: 2.6
iQB1AwUBLnSu4FVdQwUlirpJAQE5awL/YogNHdoQp0QSibULHXE+NIol+D3pXcCV
ubTlrT/wtigK0HFNtP/Ty1PjdmUBoseyD8KQe6rTcixZrHGvV7FlBz6/Mcsg7ybf
CbIQ/maae3D8XK1Iw2XXbbuwy8ZCTfQ+
=Dlw1
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~~~ PGPBLUE v1.7 <NR> 
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12


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From:    Shawn McMahon                          Area: Public Key Encryption
To:      Wes Landaker                           13 Sep 94 12:31:54
Subject: RSA Broken                             UpdReq 

Despite the stern warnings of the tribal elders, Wes Landaker said this to 
George Hannah:
 WL> Yeah, basically. If they every get close to breaking at 384-bit 
 WL> key (the weakest PGP key)
Been there, done that.
It takes thousands of MIPS/years, but that's easily within the reach of 
governments and businesses.
I recommend you get that 1024-bit key ready now, and revoke your 384-bit.



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From:    Shawn McMahon                          Area: Public Key Encryption
To:      Richard Walker                         13 Sep 94 12:40:58
Subject: Re: New to PGP                         UpdReq 

Despite the stern warnings of the tribal elders, Richard Walker said this to 
Shawn McMahon:
 RW> Considering McD's just got nailed for 2+mil for some lady 
 RW> spilling coffee on herself, I'd say the liability is very 
 RW> real.
Numerous court precedents, going all the way to the Supreme Court, and the 
opinions of every single communications attorney I've ever seen quoted, 
disagree with you.
But, hey; think what you want.  You aren't causing me in any inconvenience, so 
I won't worry about it.



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