On 1/20/2012 3:15 PM, Chris Poole wrote: > Since it's now recommended (to my knowledge) to use 2048-bit keys and > above, how does having a 1024-bit keypair affect me?
It depends entirely on what you're doing with it. Breaking a 1024-bit key is within the realm of possibility for a ridiculously well-funded adversary. It hasn't been publicly demonstrated yet, but it's a matter of time. Over a decade ago, the state of the art was to break a 56-bit keyspace in under 24 hours for $250,000. A 1024-bit key has about an 80-bit keyspace, which is a factor of 16 million larger. Given the advances in supercomputing in the last decade it is reasonable to believe 1024-bit keys are either breakable now or will be in the near future, but only at incredible cost. If I was signing nuclear weapon authorization codes, I would not trust 1024-bit DSA. Nor would I trust it if I was signing a 30-year mortgage. On the other hand, for most normal email usage 1024-bit crypto is still plenty enough. _______________________________________________ Gnupg-users mailing list Gnupg-users@gnupg.org http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users
