Re: Ada & Encryption / Compression

[David L Brown <dbrown@ted.vigra.com>]

John Howard <jhoward@sky.net> writes:

> Forget about doing your own RSA encryption.
> 1)  RSA is patented.  You'd have to wait for the patent to expire.

Agreed, and this might be enough to stop you.  RSA claims that you can
only use their implementation.  You could probably call the C just
fine from Ada.  (I don't know if it is available outside of the US,
PGP uses the code, and is available outside of the US).

> 2)  RSA can't be implemented unless you know the two large prime numbers
>     it uses (which are a secret).  As of a year ago, RSA was still not
>     reported as cracked to reveal the two primes.  Presumably many skilled 
>     researchers have tried to crack RSA.

Hmm?  The secret key is something that I generate.  I tell someone the
product of these two primes which they can use to encrypt, but I need
to know the factors in order to decrypt.

Don't confuse the RSA algorithm with the contest that RSA is holding
to crack a particular key.  They are witholding this key, not because
it has to do with the algorithm, but because it is part of a contest.

Please see <http://www.rsa.com/>

I do not speak for RSA,
David Brown
dbrown@vigra.com