[Year 12 IT Apps] Cracking public key encryption

[Mark KELLY]

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".

This article at
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/10/dkim-vulnerability-widespread/interested
me because actual figures are given for factoring encryption
keys.  He says:
- 384 bit encryption takes 24 hours to crack with a laptop
- 512 bit encryption takes 72 hours using $75 worth of Amazon
supercomputing cloud power.

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.

-- 
Mark Kelly - kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
Manager of ICT, Reporting, IT Learning Area
McKinnon Secondary College, McKinnon Rd, McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
Phone: +613 8520 9085, Fax +613 9578 9253
VCE IT Lecture Notes: http://vceit.com
Moderator: IT Applications Edulist <http://edulists.com.au/itapps/index.htm>
Visit Diigo links for ITA <http://groups.diigo.com/group/vce-info-tech> and
SD <http://groups.diigo.com/group/vce-sd>
--
My personal best for the 100 metre sprint is 11.9 metres.
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