2 ^ 52 = 4,503,599,627,370,500
If that equals a number of seconds, then it is equal to 142,808,207 years. If kilometers, it is equal to 476.03 light years.
So 2 ^ 52 is still a big number anyway.
If that equals a number of seconds, then it is equal to 142,808,207 years. If kilometers, it is equal to 476.03 light years.
So 2 ^ 52 is still a big number anyway.
Yes, but it isn't a number of seconds. It's a number of cryptographic operations. My laptop can perform 2^23 SHA1s per second. SHA1 collision-finding is getting into the "idle resources from a university computing lab for a few months" range.
Out of curiosity, what sort of time frame does that translate to for a government agency such as the NSA?
Less than zero seconds. I'm sure the NSA computed collisions in SHA1 at least two years ago -- they had more than enough resources and they'd have to be idiots to not be interested in investigating the problem.
The NSA has more money, but so do many commercial software companies.
Does the NSA have other advantages? Is cryptography so different from software? Or does the NSA just fool people about their level of sophistication but relies on Rubber-hose cryptanalysis and eaves-dropping on telephone calls to get their result?
For cryptographic research, that's probably true. For "computer technology" in general, probably not -- they have a large budget, but not so large that it would make sense for them to independently replicate all of the work companies like Intel and IBM do on lithographic processes.
I'm sure the NSA has access to fabrication capacity, though -- almost certainly via deals with US companies to allow them to run a few wafers here and there.