[OT] RE: telnet vs ssh on Core equipment , looking for reasons why ?

David Howe DaveHowe at gmx.co.uk
Wed Aug 1 17:02:08 UTC 2001


> You are forgetting about the people
> who build hardware just to crack this.
No, not really. for each bit of length you add to the key, you double either
the (average) time or the amount of hardware needed to crack it. as the pool
of hardware gets larger, the storage, communications and power requirements
grow in proportion - rapidly leaving only the time component to increase.
assuming you could build a machine 256 times the parallel processing power
of the des cracker, that still only shaves 8 bits off the keylength - and of
course the 56bit cracking machine was only capable of testing 56 bit keys -
so a larger gate array design would be needed further increasing the number
of chips or power of chips needed per parellel testing unit. I am sure if
the NSA had built a city the size of new york as one big computer, with
power stations and staff, just so they can crack *a* key within the lifetime
of its user, someone would have noticed...





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