Mathematical breathrough could destroy e-commerce

LincLinc OwnerDetroit Icrontian
edited September 2004 in Science & Tech
A mathematical breakthrough regarding prime numbers could invalidate internet security measures. The Riemann hypothesis is one of seven 'milennium problems' for which there is a $1 million reward for solving.
The proof should give us more understanding of how the primes work. If it does, it will bring the whole of ecommerce to its knees, overnight. So there are very big implications.
Source: vnunet.com

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    Read the article. This sounds like more hype than reality.... What is with the media? Sheesh!
  • EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    There isn't nearly enough detail in the article to make such a claim. I guess I'll just look up the Riemann hypothesis when I get the chance; if anyone else finds more info please post a link.
  • gibbonslgibbonsl Grand Forks AFB
    edited September 2004
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_hypothesis

    here is a good one
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited September 2004
    I swear there was already a post about this here, but for the life of me I can't find it
  • MediaManMediaMan Powered by loose parts.
    edited September 2004
    The VU Net story is poor at best. A lot of the media do post stories that are headline grabbers with no real substance.

    Nowhere in that story does it explain or hint at how eCommerce could be brought to its knees. Perhaps there's no simple way to explain it but from what I read in the other links it appears that the theory could predict random numbers. In a sense...random ecommerce codes would no longer be classified as random...since the theory could predict them.

    This could mean that randomly generated codes, passwords, etc (and encryption to a certain degree) could be cracked by prediction.

    I guess, if I'm right in my interpretation, that could have been included in the story.

    But for now...I classify the VU Net story as a chicken little.
  • TemplarTemplar You first.
    edited September 2004
    Related article. The Poincare Conjecture (No idea what it is..) has an outstanding theory for it right now (Note, not proven), and is also one of the 7 Millinium Problems...
  • EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    TheBaron: Yeah, there definitely was.

    MediaMan: My guess is it has more to do with factoring a product of prime numbers to crack encryption algorithms rather than random number generation (for which there are a multitude of ways).

    Thanks for the link gibbonsl
  • MizugoriMizugori NYC
    edited September 2004
    its about encryption. i don't totally understand it myself, but apparently most if not all encryption is based upon certain mathematical equations that were thought to be un-solvable (is that a word?). So all of the sites using encryption to protect your credit cards (which means all of them basically) could be in trouble if someone can crack the problems and thus predict the character series used by an encrypted piece of data.
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