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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)."

7 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!

  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.

  6. 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
  7. 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! :)