Can the NSA crack RSA?
• This question has been asked many times. If the NSA were able to crack RSA, you would probably never hear about it from them. The best defense against this is the fact the algorithm for RSA is known worldwide. There are many competent mathematicians and cryptographers outside the NSA and there is much research being done in the field right now. If any of them were to discover a hole in RSA, I’m sure that we would hear about it from them. I think that it would be hard to hide such a discovery. For this reason, when you read messages on USENET saying that “someone told them” that the NSA is able to break pgp, take it with a grain of salt and ask for some documentation on exactly where the information is coming from. Go to Table of Contents • 3.5. Has RSA ever been cracked publicly? What is RSA-129? • One RSA-encrypted message has been cracked publicly. • When the inventors of RSA first published the algorithm, they encrypted a sample message with it and made it available along with the
