ECC

[Jean-David Beyer]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

markus reichelt wrote:
> * Jean-David Beyer <jdbeyer at exit109.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>> markus reichelt wrote (in part):
>> 
>> 
>>> Mainly, because I think that the guys with the small ... glasses ;-)
>>> at NSA can break public key crypto quite easily,
>> 
>> Could you give a basis for this assertion?
> 
> 
> Well... please understand that it is my personal belief; just like one
> might believe in god, or not. Therefore this 'basis' cannot be what you
> are looking for :-)
> 
> 
> 
>> Is it because you think they have so much computer power at Ft. Meade
>> that they can use exhaustive search? Or do you think their 
>> mathematicians are so much better than the general public (including
>> math professors who specialize in this stuff) that they have discovered
>> a breakthrough in factoring? Or because you believe they have gotten
>> all manufacturers to include trogan horses in their code?
> 
> 
> I put the speculations aside and stick with the fact that the NSA 
> recommends ECC for government use. That's enough for _me_.
> 
I guess it depends on how your paranoia works, and about whom you choose to
be paranoid. Does the NSA recommend ECC for government use so that another
government agency (e.g., the NSA) can read, if necessary or desired by the
parties that control that government agency? If so, I would assume they know
how to crack ECC. In that case I would not want to use ECC.

Or do they know how to crack everything else and have not yet cracked ECC?
In that case, I would want to use ECC.

Paranoia is a wonderful thing, but it can trap you in dilemmas like this.

- --
  .~.  Jean-David Beyer          Registered Linux User 85642.
  /V\  PGP-Key: 9A2FC99A         Registered Machine   241939.
 /( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey    http://counter.li.org
 ^^-^^ 15:10:00 up 26 days, 14:33, 4 users, load average: 4.25, 4.19, 4.12
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iD8DBQFDa8G7Ptu2XpovyZoRAppzAKDOmf6vHKBuCIrKL7GhvhhGkMfhRgCfUdKE
RYyfkNmiBQJ0xDjXw8JZesY=
=vPQC
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----