> The conventional ways to measure computational capability of the NSA are
> inadequate.
You're missing the point. Until you start talking about Earth-sized
computers, or possibly quantum computers, there simply isn't enough
computational capacity *anywhere* to brute-force a 128-bit key, and no
conventional computer in this universe could brute-force a 256-bit key.
Even if the NSA have a trillion chips which can each test a trillion keys
every second, breaking a single key will take trillions of times longer
than the lifetime of the universe. The same hardware could easily crack
every 40-bit RC4 connection in the world.
Of course, the NSA might have sneaked out while we weren't looking,
replaced the surface of the moon with a moon-colored billboard and turned
the interior into an IDEA-cracking nano-supercomputer ;-).
Mark
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Mark Grant M.A., U.L.C. EMAIL: mark@unicorn.com |
|WWW: http://www.c2.org/~mark MAILBOT: bot@unicorn.com |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|