Re: NSA and PGP rabblerousing

[markh@wimsey.bc.ca (Mark C. Henderson)]

> Note that doubling the key size from 1024 to 2048 bits is also
> probably a ruse, since it dramatically increases computation time (I
> think).  1024 bits are a lot of bits as it is.

On a 486DX/33 an RSA sign operation takes a little under 2 seconds 
with a 1024 bit key. With an 1800 bit key (not quite 2048), a little 
under 9 seconds. (gcc 2.5.8, gmp 1.3.2, Linux) 

Personally, I think 1024 bit keys are probably enough.

I'm currently working on some Montgomery multiplication code for 
RSAREF (sans gmp), which should make things faster. (It already 
works, I just need to clean some things up before releasing it). 

Mark

-- 
Mark Henderson      markh@wimsey.bc.ca (personal account)
RIPEM MD5OfPublicKey: F1F5F0C3984CBEAF3889ADAFA2437433
ViaCrypt PGP Key Fingerprint: 21 F6 AF 2B 6A 8A 0B E1  A1 2A 2A 06 4A D5 92 46
cryptography archive maintainer -- anon ftp -- wimsey.bc.ca:/pub/crypto