Re: JSH: Ethics of a factoring solution

jstevh@xxxxxxx schrieb:
's say for the sake of argument that I had this overwhelming
insight, like had this incredible dream with the solution to the
factoring problem, got up tomorrow, quickly programmed it and got the
factors of the next RSA number, and did what you said, posting them,
but not the method.

So, by this hypothetical scenario, I post factors tomorrow morning.

Wouldn't Monday open with a stock market crash?
No. It didn't crash with any or the previously cracked RSA challenges and
it didn't crash when MD5 was broken either.

Besides, the world *will* survive a market crash, just as it survived the
previous three or four. Most people won't even notice.

Of course you could minimize the impact by cracking the smallest open
challenge instead of the biggest one.

Also, consider the alternative:
Some unfriendly powers can make something of your crackpot ideas, do
*real* harm and here you are, having been able to do something, having done
nothing and us all knowing it.

If you do know that RSA is broken (proof by example, not by stupid idea),
it is unethical to let people assume they are still secure.

Volker
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