Re: RSA-130 Falls to NFS - Lenstra Posting to sci.crypt.research

[Bruce Marshall <brucem@wichita.fn.net>]

On Mon, 15 Apr 1996, Vladimir Z. Nuri wrote:

> I have been wondering about malicious hackers getting into these
> pools. would it be possible for them to contribute false data
> that screws up the end results? or are such anomalies easily
> discarded or disregarded by the final processes?

> future implementors of these programs might amuse themselves with
> trying to create such safeguards or anticipate such "attacks" which
> are pretty significant the more the processes become distributed.

    I guess I would have to ask you why you think hackers would be 
interested in these projects in the first place?  Your typical hacker 
would care very little about such a project and in fact may be interested 
in seeing it succeed.  

    However, I do feel that you may have a valid point when switching 
"hackers" to "opponents of the research."  Anyone with an interest in 
preventing or slowing down the progress in such a project would be more 
dangerous in my mind than your average hacker.  

    Preventing that from happening would be necessary if it is decided 
that such a threat truly exists. 

Bruce Marshall