There's a new way to break RSA that's faster than anything we've seen before

Until now, cryptographers thought factoring was the only way to break RSA.

The short version

• The world has known for decades that the RSA cryptosystem ’s days are numbered.
• Once quantum computing becomes practical (estimates for that range from 3 to 20 or more years), the foundational security it provides will crumble.
• New research has revealed a novel method that uses classical computing to reduce the current RSA security level to an unacceptably low threshold.

What happened

The practical risk is limited, but still significant. Widely used RSA implementations are also safe.

Why it matters

Nonetheless, the research has taken cryptographers by surprise because it introduces signature forgery, a new way to break RSA keys without factoring.

Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Ars Technica via the links above and below.