The point is if it hasn't been proved un-secure, you at least have some hope that it's ok. The problem usually isn't the algorithms involved but the weak factor in any security system, those impossible humans. They leak information about passwords, behaviours, and intentions all the time. Nothing in cryptograpy can help if the message is "do the deed" and both parties are known in advance.
The purpose of all these challenges is to understand how much computing power is necessary to break encryption or signature schemes. EC109 strength is pretty low, but offer a way-point on the curve.
Distinguished points are not really distinguished. They just have an easy search pattern such as a number of trailing zeroes or other constant values. These are searched ad-infinitum and when two matches are found, a little math can get you a private key.
The death nell for the DES algorithm was heard when distributed.net, in cooperation with the Electronic Freedom Foundation built a machine that could crack it in 27 days (or so). And the cost made you wonder who might want to build such machines. As a result, we have AES and expanding public key lengths.
No-one would really use ECC 109 for current cryptographic systems. The results from this test confirms that. The real question is what is the appropriate key length for a
The amount of money (n computers over t time) tells us what sort of advisaries these techniques are useful against. It also
Slashdot Mirror
The point is if it hasn't been proved un-secure, you at least have some hope that it's ok. The problem usually isn't the algorithms involved but the weak factor in any security system, those impossible humans. They leak information about passwords, behaviours, and intentions all the time. Nothing in cryptograpy can help if the message is "do the deed" and both parties are known in advance.
The purpose of all these challenges is to understand how much computing power is necessary to break encryption or signature schemes. EC109 strength is pretty low, but offer a way-point on the curve. Distinguished points are not really distinguished. They just have an easy search pattern such as a number of trailing zeroes or other constant values. These are searched ad-infinitum and when two matches are found, a little math can get you a private key. The death nell for the DES algorithm was heard when distributed.net, in cooperation with the Electronic Freedom Foundation built a machine that could crack it in 27 days (or so). And the cost made you wonder who might want to build such machines. As a result, we have AES and expanding public key lengths. No-one would really use ECC 109 for current cryptographic systems. The results from this test confirms that. The real question is what is the appropriate key length for a The amount of money (n computers over t time) tells us what sort of advisaries these techniques are useful against. It also