When discussing security, my kids sometimes ask how long it would take to crack public key encryption, and I never had a good answer apart from "a long time".<br><br>This article at <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/10/dkim-vulnerability-widespread/">http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/10/dkim-vulnerability-widespread/</a> interested me because actual figures are given for factoring encryption keys. He says:<br>
- 384 bit encryption takes 24 hours to crack with a laptop<br>- 512 bit encryption takes 72 hours using $75 worth of Amazon supercomputing cloud power.<br><br>It doesn't take too much imagination to extrapolate from that exponential time increase to imagine how long it would take to crack 1024 bit - the current recommended level for security, or 2048 bit, which Google is now using after the events in the article took place.<br clear="all">
<br>-- <br>Mark Kelly - <a href="mailto:kel@mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au" target="_blank">kel@mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au</a><br>Manager of ICT, Reporting, IT Learning Area<br>McKinnon Secondary College, McKinnon Rd, McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia<br>
Phone: +613 8520 9085, Fax +613 9578 9253<br>VCE IT Lecture Notes: <a href="http://vceit.com" target="_blank">http://vceit.com</a><br>Moderator: <a href="http://edulists.com.au/itapps/index.htm" target="_blank">IT Applications Edulist</a><br>
Visit Diigo links for <a href="http://groups.diigo.com/group/vce-info-tech" target="_blank">ITA</a> and <a href="http://groups.diigo.com/group/vce-sd" target="_blank">SD</a><br>--<br>My personal best for the 100 metre sprint is 11.9 metres.<br>
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