RSA security in light of news
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A recent article reported on the successful factoring of a 512-bit RSA key. The process took $8 worth of rented computing power. What does that say about the security of RSA encryption?
The following Python function estimates the computation steps required to factor a number b bits long using the best known algorithm. We’re going to take a ratio of two such estimates, so proportionality constants will cancel.
The minimum recommended RSA key size is 2048 bits. The cost ratio for factoring a 2048 bit key to a 512 bit key is f(2048) / f(512), which is on the order of 1016. So factoring a 2048-bit key would take 80 quadrillion dollars.
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