Concerns Over Factoring Technology's Threat To Strong Encryption Security

Concerns that improvements in factoring technology might make it easier to break large key length encryption codes are misplaced, according to noted cryptographer Bruce Schneier. Last year mathematician Dan Bernstein circulated a paper discussing improvements in integer factorization, . . . Concerns that improvements in factoring technology might make it easier to break large key length encryption codes are misplaced, according to noted cryptographer Bruce Schneier. Last year mathematician Dan Bernstein circulated a paper discussing improvements in integer factorization, using specialised parallel hardware, implying that encryption keys as long as 2048 bits can now be broken.

Schneier, inventor of the Blowfish encryption algorithm and founder of Counterpane Internet Security, believes the improvements described in Bernstein's paper are unlikely to produce the claimed speed improvements in practice.