Quantum computing

[Ryan Malayter]

On 4/18/07, Ryan Malayter <malayter at gmail.com> wrote:
> Factoring, on the other hand, applies only to public-key RSA
> encryption. There "bits" mean something totally different; a bit of
> RSA key length is "worth less" than a bit of symmetric key length.
> Numbers have already been factored in the ~600 bit range, so at least
> 1024 bits are recommended for RSA, and 2048 bits is a good idea.

This page represents a reasonable snapshot of the state of the art in factoring:
http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2093

One must assume that a governmental entity like China's Ministry of
State Security can factor significantly larger numbers than the 640
bit factorization done by academic researchers. Which is why you often
see recommendations for 1500+ bit RSA keys.

-- 
Ryan