You might be tempted to use that shiny new prime number for RSA encryption. Don't do it. RSA encryption uses the difficulty of factoring the product of two large prime numbers to make sure hackers can ...

Prime numbers are all the rage these days. I can tell something’s up when random people start asking me about the randomness of primes—without even knowing that I’m a mathematician! In the past couple ...

The bolding is mine, because if in fact the agency did crack the encryption schemes used for bank transactions (the Times is somewhat unclear on that point), then in doing so it may have solved a math ...

In 1998, Ask Ars was an early feature of the newly launched Ars Technica. Now, as then, it's all about your questions and our community's answers. We occasionally dig into our question bag, provide ...

RSA encryption is a major foundation of digital security and is one of the most commonly used forms of encryption, and yet it operates on a brilliantly simple premise: it's easy to multiply two large ...

When sending your credit card number through a public medium, such as the Internet, your financial credibility may be compromised if the number is not first encrypted. It is impossible to tell who may ...

Like a mirror image of Bedford's Law, mathematicians have found a pattern in prime numbers that raises more questions than it answers. Share on Facebook (opens in a new window) Share on X (opens in a ...

Every encrypted connection you make online relies on a centuries-old mystery about prime numbers. This is the elegant ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American A team of researchers has successfully ...

In contrast to the cooperative preparations required for setting up private key encryption, such as secret-sharing and close coordination between sender and receiver ...