[125670] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: A call for aid in cracking a 1024-bit malware key
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (James Muir)
Mon Jun 9 17:38:30 2008
Date: Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:43:05 -0300
From: James Muir <jamuir@cs.smu.ca>
In-reply-to: <20080609105954.199f22bb@cs.columbia.edu>
To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
> According to
> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9094818&intsrc=hm_list%3E%20&articleId=9094818&intsrc=hm_list
> some new malware is encrypting files with a 1024-bit RSA key. Victims
> are "asked" to pay a random to get their files decrypted. So -- can
> the key be factored?
I saw a similar story reported on Slashdot a few days ago. I wonder if
the malware authors cited Adam Young and Moti Yung? They hypothesized
about such malware a few years ago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptovirology
-James
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