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Factors Found in 200-Digit RSA Challenge

Posted by Zonk on from the really-big-numbers dept.

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)."

3 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Waste of time! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If someone claims to have found a better factoring method, then it's easier for RSA to check that p,q < n and p*q = n, than to read his algorithm and analysis and award a prize based on that. (Imagine how many crackpots would apply with 100 pages long "proofs").

  2. Re:Notation? by iMaple · · Score: 5, Informative

    Does anyone know what the notation "11281+1" means?

    It means 11282 :) .
    There seems to be a typo in the article post (A typo on slashdaot .. thats news ..I mean just one typo thats cool). Its probably due to some filter. It should say 11^281 +1

  3. 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! :)