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(seen recently on the Cypherpunks list)

But cracking RSA is easier than running a sieve until you have all primes until those used in RSA. Besides that, you would not have enough storage for all those primes.

Good point :) Forgot about that little space problem (oops). Of course, who can really say other than the NSA?

Astronomers should know about it.

RSA is typically performed using 512bit prime numbers. There are approximately 3.778e151 such prime numbers. Using the advanced storage technology available to the NSA, it should be possible to store a 512 bit number in a single hydrogen atom. A typical universe (e.g. ours) contains approximately 1e90 hydrogen atoms. If the NSA has hidden 3.778e61 universes in an inconspicious little building in Maryland, astronomers should notice some deviations in the gravity field in the area.

--Hope this helps,

HansM