Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a80
From: a80@mindlink.UUCP (Greg Goss)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Digital Signatures and Public Key Cryptography
Message-ID: <3026@mindlink.UUCP>
Date: 1 Sep 90 14:19:33 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Lines: 18

I seem to recall that the initial enthusiasm for public key systems in the
seventies seemed to wane suddenly.

The version of the story that I heard was that someone (an Israeli?) came up
with an algorithm to break one of the hottest key systems of the time.  I don't
think he ever released the algorithm, but would be willing to be locked into a
room with an Apple II and his disk and a message and the matching public key,
and he would emerge within 24 hours with the other key.

Does anyone know whether this story has any truth to it, and what the real
version of the story is?  In this report, the code was broken not by
number-crunching hardware advances, but by new algorithms running on pretty
basic hardware.

If a past public key system was vulnerable to advances in decoding algorithms,
then people are leery about the current generation.

..../greg