:: 18-Jan-1999 22:05 (Monday) ::
Here’s a brief run-down of the most frequently asked questions in
#distributed:
1) Yes, we will have stats for DES-III. They’ll run at 00:00 UTC just
like the normal RC5-64 stats. No, statsbox-ii isn’t up yet, but
DES stats will run a bit faster than RC5 stats due to the lack of
past data to compensate for.
2) Yeah, we’re checking the keys “in order”. No, it makes no difference.
3) RSA doesn’t “choose” the key, it’s randomly selected.
4) Once the correct solution is submitted to the keymaster, it’ll be
less than 5 minutes or so for pagers to start beeping. The solution
will be fired off to RSA Labs and their auto-responder will be able to
confirm the win within minutes of that. We will not, however, be in
a position to announce the win until we’ve received clearance from
RSA Labs. There will be a period of time where we’ve found the key but
cannot tell anyone. Sorry, but that’s just how RSA has chosen to run the
contests. I’d assume that this period of time will be very short-lived
for DES-III however. What this does mean is that if we find the key at
2am pacific, it’ll most likely be morning before we can announce.
5) http://www.eff.org/descracker.html will tell you all you care to know
about our ally, Deep Crack.
6) Yeah, we do rock. Woohoo!