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From: ijk@hou5e.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.crypt,net.math
Subject: Cracking public - key encryption schemes such as RSA
Message-ID: <737@hou5e.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 24-Aug-83 13:44:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: hou5e.737
Posted: Wed Aug 24 13:44:18 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 26-Aug-83 01:29:51 EDT
Organization: American Bell ED&D, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 19

About two months ago, there was an article posted by sibley at
psuvax (Penn. State University) on cracking the RSA code.  Also,
I seem to remember some articles in the N.Y. Times that a version was
crackable.  I'm interested in the reaction and followup on this
topic.  Is anyone using an RSA code and considering changing it??
Is the knapsack method being investigated as an alternative 
(see Sci. Am, Aug 79, pp 146-157) since it is  considered to be
an NP-complete problem (the breaking of which would conceptually
allow the solution to all problems in this class, if I understand
correctly).  Considering the great need for better computer security,
(even the casual reader of newspapers is probably aware that a
significant problem exists), this area should be of great concern
to all of us, but little attention seem to have been paid to it.

Any comments or references to current articles will be greatly appreciated

Ihor Kinal
AT&T Information Systems
hou5e!ijk