Flaw Found in an Online Encryption Method

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/technology/researchers-find-flaw-in-an-=
online-encryption-method.html

By JOHN MARKOFF
The New York Times
February 14, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO -- A team of European and American mathematicians and=20
cryptographers have discovered an unexpected weakness in the encryption=20
system widely used worldwide for online shopping, banking, e-mail and=20
other Internet services intended to remain private and secure.

The flaw -- which involves a small but measurable number of cases =E2=80=94=
 has=20
to do with the way the system generates random numbers, which are used=20
to make it practically impossible for an attacker to unscramble digital=20
messages. While it can affect the transactions of individual Internet=20
users, there is nothing an individual can do about it. The operators of=20
large Web sites will need to make changes to ensure the security of=20
their systems, the researchers said.

The potential danger of the flaw is that even though the number of users=20
affected by the flaw may be small, confidence in the security of Web=20
transactions is reduced, the authors said.

The system requires that a user first create and publish the product of=20
two large prime numbers, in addition to another number, to generate a=20
public =E2=80=9Ckey.=E2=80=9D The original numbers are kept secret. To en=
crypt a=20
message, a second person employs a formula that contains the public=20
number. In practice, only someone with knowledge of the original prime=20
numbers can decode that message.

[...]


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