SecurityRatty: Kaspersky Labs Trying to Crack 1024-bit RSA

This is cache of http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/06/kaspersky_labs.html. Cache is the snapshot of article that we took when we index feed.
To see original page click here.
We are not affiliated with the authors of this article and not responsible for its content.

Kaspersky Labs Trying to Crack 1024-bit RSA

2008-06-12 12:30:41 by schneier in Schneier on Security

I can't figure this story out. Kaspersky Lab is launching an international distributed effort to crack a 1024-bit RSA key used by the Gpcode Virus. From their website:

We estimate it would take around 15 million modern computers, running for about a year, to crack such a key.

What are they smoking at Kaspersky? We've never factored a 1024-bit number -- at least, not outside any secret government agency -- and it's likely to require a lot more than 15 million computer years of work. The current factoring record is a 1023-bit number, but it was a special number that's easier to factor than a product-of-two-primes number used in RSA. Breaking that Gpcode key will take a lot more mathematical prowess than you can reasonably expect to find by asking nicely on the Internet. You've got to understand the current best mathematical and computational optimizations of the Number Field Sieve, and cleverly distribute the parts that can be distributed. You can't just post the products and hope for the best.

Is this just a way for Kaspersky to generate itself some nice press, or are they confused in Moscow?