CYBERSPACE, 31 March 1997 - This is to announce the first truly
distributed attack on the popular PGP encryption/authentication program. 
In 24 hours, users all across cyberspace can assist in 'factoring' a
1024-bits PGP public key, using a Java applet specially written by a team
of 'cypherpunks'. 

To make this attack successful, we need as many people as we can find to
run this program on their computer. As Java applets can be run by anyone
with an Internet connection and a modern operating system like Windows
'95(tm), OS/2(tm) or Linux(tm) with a web browser such as Netscape
Navigator 2.02 or above, everyone can join in. All you need to do is
download the applet from the URL given below, and run it. The applet will
send the results of its factoring attempts to a preconfigured e-mail
address automatically. 

Some background information: a PGP key is considered unbreakable because
it consists of a product of two very large prime numbers. The only way to
'crack' the key is to find the two prime numbers. This applet does exactly
that. Each user who downloads the applet also is assigned a range of
numbers to try. If at least 144,000 users download the applet, and run it
for 24 hours on a computer at least as powerful as a 486, the entire
keyspace will be searched. At least one of these users will then find the
two prime numbers that make up the secret key, and then the key has been
'cracked'.  (Note to techies: the method used is the Distributed Special
Number Field Sieve, as developed by David Scott <dscott@ridgecrest.ca.us>) 

The URL for the factoring applet is
                    <URL:http://paranoia.stardot.com/>

To keep track of the number of users that are running the applet, and to
communicate with other participants in this exciting event, the IRC
channel #pgp-factor will be available tomorrow all day.