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Factors Found in 200-Digit RSA Challenge

diodesign writes "The two unique prime factors of a 200-digit number have been discovered by researchers at Bonn University (Germany) and the CWI (Netherlands). The number is the largest integer yet factored with a general purpose algorithm and was one of a series of such numbers issued as a challenge by security company RSA security in March 1991 in order to track the real-world difficulty of factoring such numbers, used in the public-key encryption algorithm RSA. RSA-200 beats the previous record number 11281+1 (176 digits, factored on May 2nd, 2005), and RSA-576 (174 digits, factored on December 3rd, 2003)."

16 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Slashdot is a prime factor in how much time I waste day to day.

  2. I don't get it... by neiffer · · Score: 3, Funny

    I tried to do it on my TI-85 and I keep getting an error!

    1. Re:I don't get it... by ArielMT · · Score: 2, Funny

      I tried to do it on my TI-85 and I keep getting an error!

      Turn your calculator upside down on the step just before the error.

      --
      It must be Windows. It needs half a gig of RAM and a hardware-accelerated graphics card just to run Solitaire.
    2. Re:I don't get it... by SuperBigGulp · · Score: 2, Funny

      I have a laptop computer from Ohio Arts, but every time I turn it upside down the screen goes blank. I also wish it had a keyboard...it isn't easy trying to factor large numbers with just the two knobs.

      --
      Someday a Slashdot ID of 177180 will mean something.
  3. Did Michelle Deliop write this? by winkydink · · Score: 3, Funny

    May 9, 2005 The two unique prime factors of a 200 digit number have been discovered by researchers at Bonn University.

    Note: we need a source on this. All we have now is an anonymous edit on Wikipedia from someone at Cal State Fullerton.


    An anonymous edit in Wikipedia. Now there's a source for you!

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  4. Re:55 CPU years by merlin_jim · · Score: 3, Funny

    The article says it took 55 CPU years to factor the number, though they did it in parallel for about a year and a half. I'd hate to imagine the teams that we don't hear about who are, say, 30 CPU years into the problem who just found out it's already been done.

    Shutup. I hate you all.

    Oh well guess it's time to start looking at RSA-768...

    --
    I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
  5. Infinite Improbability... by wcitech · · Score: 3, Funny

    The air force has a practical use for this discovery, because when these numbers are fed into an infinite improbability drive, oncoming surface to air missles will be changed into a sperm whale and a harmless bowl of petunias.

    1. Re:Infinite Improbability... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Oh no, not again.

    2. Re:Infinite Improbability... by Haydn+Fenton · · Score: 2, Funny

      42.

      ...Meh, I felt left out.

  6. Re:55 CPU years by stecoop · · Score: 2, Funny

    it took 55 CPU years to factor the number

    That's not too bad. Look at how long the computer took to get the the question in Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy?

  7. Damn you GNU factor v2.0.11 by GillBates0 · · Score: 3, Funny

    My plans for world domination have been foiled.

    $ factor --version
    factor (GNU sh-utils) 2.0.11

    $ factor 10000000000000000000
    10000000000000000000: 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

    $ factor 100000000000000000000
    factor: `100000000000000000000' is not a valid positive integer
    Try `factor --help' for more information.

    On a positive note, I was short only by 179 digits.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  8. Re:Prime Numbers by Thud457 · · Score: 2, Funny
    Not really anything to do with this specifically, but this story does have something to do with goatse, so I will bring it up.

    Prime numbers for you

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  9. Re:Algorithmic difficulty by ch-chuck · · Score: 2, Funny

    so there's still a chance that 'Sneakers' might come true?

    --
    try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  10. Re:so? by yamla · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can factor primes of any size in constant time. It does not matter how large they are. Let us take a prime number, we'll call it p. What are the factors? The factors are exactly 1 and p. There are no other integer factors of prime number p. :)

    --

    Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
  11. I don't want to spoil the ending but... by fxer · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...the punchline is

    3,532,461,934,402,770,121,272,604,978,198,464,36 8, 671,197,400,197,625,023,649,303,468,776,121,253,67 9,423,200,058,547,956,528,088,349
    and
    7,925,869, 954,478,333,033,347,085,841,480,059,687, 737,975,857,364,219,960,734,330,341,455,767,872,81 8,152,135,381,409,304,740,185,467

    tip your waitresses! :)

  12. Re:Waste of time! by kurzweilfreak · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, all that computing power could be used on better things.... like posting on /. Or Quake 3. Or finishing Duke Nukem Forever! Don't they know there are hungry children all over the world! Won't someone please think of the children?!

    --

    kurzweil_freak

    5th Kyu Genbukan Ninpo/KJJR student

    Be the darkness that allows the light to shine.