[Beowulf] [tt] World's most powerful supercomputer goes online

[Gerry Creager]

Jim Lux wrote:
> At 01:02 PM 9/2/2007, Kyle Spaans wrote:
>> On 9/1/07, Robert G. Brown <rgb at phy.duke.edu> wrote:
>>
>> > RSA and DES and MD5 are considered "probably uncrackable" by
>> > anyone with less than NSA-class resources, but of course this bot-cloud
>> > is several orders of magnitude more powerful than NSA's probable setup.
>>
>> Why a "probable setup" ? I would agree that the NSA likely has a hefty
>> HPC sitting around somewhere - but why don't we know about it? If the
>> NSA goes through all the work of putting together a (not trying to
>> sound pessimistic/conspiracy theorist)
>> good-enough-to-crack-your-encryption-for-public-safety cluster, why
>> wouldn't they have it up on the top500 list? Not wanting to gloat? Not
>> wanting the "badguys to know what we've got"?
> 
> NSA has a generic aversion to publicity of any kind.
> 
> Read "The Puzzle Palace" by James Bamford.
> 
> Another good book that provides some insight into the way of thinking is 
> Crypto by Steven Levy

Both should be required reading (and it's time to re-read "The Puzzle 
Palace") before asking open-ended questions about the organization whose 
very name was once classified, and whose acronym was expanded to, in 
most instances, "No Such Agency".

gerry
-- 
Gerry Creager -- gerry.creager at tamu.edu
Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas A&M University	
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