Article 35249 of alt.security:
Path: nntpd.lkg.dec.com!pa.dec.com!news1.digital.com!decwrl!news.PBI.net!ns2.mainstreet.net!jaxnet.jaxnet.com!ns1.netsouth.net!news.sprintlink.net!alpha.sky.net!news	
From: bob@nowhere.net (Bob)
Newsgroups: alt.security,alt.privacy,alt.politics.org.fbi,relcom.banktech,alt.security.pgp
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Break PGP with a Cray in 4 hours ???]
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 10:52:15 GMT
Organization: SkyNET Corporation
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Xref: nntpd.lkg.dec.com alt.security:35249 alt.privacy:35242 alt.politics.org.fbi:4468 alt.security.pgp:54263

As Department Head of Supercomputing Applications at a government
defense agency, I can assure you that PGP is not impenetrable. I
oversee a CRAY T932 (60 GFLOPS +). This machine has previously been
used to decrypt PGP encrypted data. As for time, decrypting can take
anywhere from a few seconds to three days (in one case); time DOES
depend on the size of the key.

I don't mean to burst anyone's bubble, but my department's resources
are used solely for the purpose of maintaining national security, and
we just don't have the resources to devote a $100 million
supercomputer to decrypting Jane Doe's email.

For the average encrypter (who doesn't want their sysop reading their
credit card number), PGP works great; however, for more sensitive data
there are more effecient methods of encryption.



