1/13 Irish lassie makes encryption breakthrough:
URL: http://www.msnbc.com/news/231690.asp
\_ Who cares? The only people who use encryption are pinko commies
and perverts with something to hide . . . and dirty foreigners.
It's no surprise that a foreigner came up with this. I wouldn't
be surprised if she turns out to be a commie.
\_ Gee. If that 16-year-old girl were a Cal student instead,
would you guys say the same thing?
\_ It would depend on whether or not she was a hottie.
\_ She was rather plain but I'm sure soda geeks would be all
over her.
\_ Has it been subjected to any serious peer review? Bruce
Schneier points out that smart people are wont to invent bad
ciphers when they ignore peer review...
\_ It was submitted to a school science fair. (or fare? wtf is the
online dictionary?)
\_ /csua/bin/webster
\_ I would be really interested to see an alternative crypto
algorithm that is "10 times faster than RSA". Unfortunatly
the most technical detail provided by the URL is that she used
2x2 matrices.
\_ Is there a philcrypt? I'll bet that Phillip could kick her
ass without even trying . . .
\_ cnn reported that an unknown American student known only
as "Phillip" appeared at her home in Ireland and kicked
her ass. Witnesses reported that he didn't even work up
a sweat.
\_ There's better info at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=99/01/13/0931237&cid=500
Summary: no big deal
\_ How long does it currently take to encript one piece of email?
If it only takes 1ms or so, it isn't a big deal even if it's ten
times faster, right? How many pieces of email can you send in
one second?
\_ Currently, public-key encryption is too slow to use even for
email -- that's why programs like pgp encrypt your mail using
ordinary private-key encryption, and then use RSA to encrypt
the key.
\_ So how slow is it? Say for a 10KB text email that someone
types up, approximately how long does it take?
\_ How about a 30GB file? Or a few terrabytes? With the rise in
ecommerce and the movement of large amounts of financial data
on the net, this is a serious possibility for a large corp. or
a government. Could also be plans for that new jet fighter. A
marketting campign. Or the Pres. ordering a hit on a foreign
national. Smaller delays are always a good thing if the cost
is zero.
\_ If it's even only "as good as" existing methods, it would be
a great thing, seeing as how
1. It is OUTSIDE the US
2. it is not patent or copyright protected.
\_ My impression was that her "method" was just a speeedup
to RSA, which would mean that you still have to pay
RSA to use it.
\_ I read some pseudo tech stuff from the MIT guys she worked
for and ripped off the core ideas from. It isn't RSA.
\_ Can you give a URL, please? |