Re: New Technology!

[Steven Pritchard <steve@silug.org>]

Be warned, the net enjoys April 1, and it has already started in some
parts of the world...  On that note, here's an fascinating item from
this month's Risks Digest:

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Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 -05:00:00 -0500
From: andrew@greenehouse.com
Subject: Quantum computer cracks crypto keys quickly

A small team of researchers has succeeded in building a prototype of
the so-called "quantum computer" that can factor large numbers quickly
and defeat public-key cryptosystems.

The researchers cracked the DES-IV-1 challenge, revealing the message
"Can't anyone around here keep a secret?"

Since the new computer is based on superconducting quantum interference
devices, it is not bound by conventional temporal limits on computation. In
fact, the researchers were able to use their system to crack challenges that
had not yet been created.  These future secret messages included, "God in
Heaven, what have we done?" and the cryptic "tsopyadslooflirpanasisihtsey"
-- which clearly shows that future challenges are going to use multiple
layers of encryption.

President Clinton congratulated the researchers, but said that he was
considering a proposal to ban the export of quarks from the United States
until the NSA could implement a quark escrow system, by which each quark in
the universe would be uniquely numbered.

When asked if their invention would enable scientists to foretell the
future, the researchers pointed out that they can only decrypt messages that
are encrypted using certain methods that are known today.  Furthermore,
there is no way for them to determine if the messages that they receive are
authentic or if unknown people are sending false messages to confuse us.

"If only there were a reliable way to digitally sign a transmission,"
bemoaned one of the researchers.

Steve
-- 
steve@silug.org           | Linux Users of Central Illinois
(217)698-1694             | Meetings the 4th Tuesday of every month
Steven Pritchard          | http://www.luci.org/ for more info

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