On Fri, 7 Jul 2000, Karl J. Runge wrote:
>> Plus I don't trust RSA, because they're in bed with NSA.
>
> Do you have some more information where I can read about this association?
The NSA generally prefers to do their dirty-work in Congress, by making it
illegal to use strong keys, then by getting in bed with corporations. Which
is not to say they haven't done so, just it isn't their favorite tactic.
> I really like the RSA algorithm (I can even work through the whole
> proof!) It is sad to think there might be a back-door in it.
If there is a backdoor in RSAref, it is almost certainly in the
implementation, not the RSA algorithm itself. For example, in an (unrelated)
case I've heard of, a vendor was shipping an asymmetric key system, but most
of the bits in the secret key were fixed or easily predictable. So while
people thought they were using strong keys, they really weren't.
I forget who said it, but: "The generation of random numbers is too
important to be left up to chance." :-)
--
Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Net Technologies, Inc. <http://www.ntisys.com>
Voice: (800)905-3049 x18 Fax: (978)499-7839
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