Breaking RSA

I read an article in the New York Times business section today, and it talked a
out how RSa may be close to being broken, thanks to the help of the Internet.
I have two questions: A)  If it is broken will PGP no longer be safe.
                      B) Does the gov't have any involvement, since they have an
awfully large stake?
Thanks,
Reuben Halper
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: 2.3

mQCPAi16KosAAAEEAMUwRni4a9+GbuAhHDLcBWK60hCJUYxhr2hYokpELAhx0ejp
2fq61Tu9Hjn051CN8Xy5nu6sv2ODfG/t59l4DJSb5pirQaII3zaX0rMX0ydwGDoW
YakL4ow1lNY+d/k14KpIuUW404+fNuNhIGSkdVLQIfbOgh0preK7/P44AKvdABEB
AAG0JlJldWJlbiBIYWxwZXIgPGZoYWxwZXJAcGlsb3Qubmppbi5uZXQ+iQCVAgUQ
LXorceK7/P44AKvdAQEUxwQAoffTibRlwE5tNQVGvrulh1OQgXNhTRec9vUaUwPy
U64FIZ+KnmdfYgiJYXtcItA90EB9MDexazKeqJzMOPShVNOfyiwy2yUlnQs425f8
DxBvM//zuvj6s4/mXDTPUZtG9PP0HVaEGTJY15JdfRqtj/w+HHnsHlgCnj0NnIhX
TW8=
=D9UX
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

As one of the people quoted in the article.....

You read it wrong.  Go read the article again.  "RSA129" is close to
being broken.  This is only a *SINGLE* RSA modulus.  There are an
infinite number of them.  We are about to crack only one.  It's taken
us 8 months of work, so far, and this is only about 420 bits.
Factoring is an exponential problem, so adding a small number of bits
will greatly increase the amount of time needed to factor it.

So, to answer your questions:

a) It will prove that the 384-bit (causal-grade) PGP key is not safe,
and that a 512-bit key is still somewhat safe, and that a 1024-bit key
is still very safe!

b) Yes, there are some govermental agencies helping with the
factoring.  For example, I've seen mail come in from lbl.gov, and a
bunch of nasa sites, and probably a number of others.  But they are
only helping factor *THIS ONE NUMBER*.  Data for this can only be used
to help factor multiples of RSA129, but it will not help factor any
other RSA modulus.

I hope this answers your questions, and hopefully clears up a lot of
misconceptions you clearly had when asking your questions.  (I hope
that many others didn't come to the same conclusions when reading that
article -- I know that I didn't, but then again, I know whats going on
;-)

-derek

         Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, G MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board (SIPB)
         PGP key available from pgp-public-keys@pgp.mit.edu
            warlord@MIT.EDU       PP-ASEL        N1NWH