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From: root@NEXTSERVER.CS.STTHOMAS.EDU (Max Tardiveau)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: WARNING !
Message-ID: <9104142305.AA08184@.nextserver.cs.stthomas.edu.cs.stthomas.edu..>
Date: 14 Apr 91 21:08:42 GMT
Sender: daemon@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Lines: 40
X-Unparsable-Date: Sun, 14 Apr 91 15:05:28 GMT-0800

mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu writes (about password security) :

> No, it's time to start thinking about it.  Now.  Not in five years,
> when anyone with access to one of the latest FrobozzCo64K-processor
> 2684TRX PLA machines can exhaust the space in a month,and find your
> password and mine much sooner than that.  Or when storage densities
> have improved to the point where one person can carry that monster
> lookup table I mentioned in a pocket. (64 bits times 2^56 passwords
> times 2^12 salts is 2^71 bytes.  That looks ridiculous.  Today.)
> 

> der Mouse
> 

> old: mcgill-vision!mouse
> new: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu
> 


Well, I couldn't resist. Let's see. 2^71 is...
2,361,183,241,434,822,606,848, or (thanks to number(1)) :
two sextillion three hundred sixty one quintillion one hundred eighty  
three quadrillion two hundred forty one trillion four hundred thirty  
four billion eight hundred twenty two million six hundred six  
thousand eight hundred forty eight.

A big hard disk is 1 billion bytes. A huge carousel is one trillion  
bytes. This is nine orders of magnitude larger. We'll get there, but  
not tomorrow, nor the day after.

In other words : Don't panic.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Max Tardiveau
Department of Computer Science
University of St.Thomas
St.Paul, MN  55105
Internet : m9tardiv@cs.stthomas.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------
"Ban the bomb.  Save the world for conventional warfare."