[PapaBear3625]

Besides providing insight into the nature of primes, the finding could also have applications in areas such as fraud detection and stock market analysis.

And also in cryptography, relating to Public Key Encryption. It might be that it wasn't unnoticed, but the notice was just in classified papers.

[Squantos]

Closer than you think. Diffie knew.

[stripes1776]

And also in cryptography, relating to Public Key Encryption. It might be that it wasn't unnoticed, but the notice was just in classified papers.

Well, it seems to me that this application to Public Key Encryption means that Public Key Encryption will be useless. If prime numbers can be predicted, then the encryption is broken.

As I recall, Public Key Encryption relies on the multiplication of two very large prime numbers. As things used to stand, it was impossible to predict where those primes fall in the sequence of integers. If now there is some algorithm that can predict where those primes exist, them it would be possible to use that algorithm to break the public key. Good-bye security.

[GOPJ]

And also in cryptography, relating to Public Key Encryption. It might be that it wasn't unnoticed, but the notice was just in classified papers.

Ding, ding, ding - we have a winnah!

[Travis McGee]

The NSA’s old motto used to be “ten years ahead of the state of the art.”

They probably knew this and more ten years ago.

If they have been breaking PGP, they sure wouldn’t announce that fact.