Example: a brute-force attack of an encryption algorithm that uses a 256-bit-key, would require trying out all possible keys, which is 2^256 ... which right now it would take far longer than the age of the universe to complete.
AND, most importantly, dividing that number by 10,000 (the number of computers in the article), or heck, let's be generous and say we have 1,000,000,000 computers ... would be absolutely meaningless.
It's simple really -- 2^256 / 1 billion computers =~ 2^226 -- and computing it still takes far longer than the age of our universe.
And lets say that with technology advances, you can have 70,000,000,000 computers (that's 70 billion computers, or a 700,000,000 % increase from the number in our article). Nevermind the energy required to power them or the storage capacity needed, or other such none-sense. So instead of 2^226, you now have 2^220 cycles to go through, an absolutely meaningless decrease, and still takes far longer than the age of our universe.
As a fun exercise, try figuring out how many computers would be required to bring that number down to ~ 2^200 -- that would still take far longer than the age of our universe to compute ;)
Example: a brute-force attack of an encryption algorithm that uses a 256-bit-key, would require trying out all possible keys, which is 2^256 ... which right now it would take far longer than the age of the universe to complete.
AND, most importantly, dividing that number by 10,000 (the number of computers in the article), or heck, let's be generous and say we have 1,000,000,000 computers ... would be absolutely meaningless.
It's simple really -- 2^256 / 1 billion computers =~ 2^226 -- and computing it still takes far longer than the age of our universe.
And lets say that with technology advances, you can have 70,000,000,000 computers (that's 70 billion computers, or a 700,000,000 % increase from the number in our article). Nevermind the energy required to power them or the storage capacity needed, or other such none-sense. So instead of 2^226, you now have 2^220 cycles to go through, an absolutely meaningless decrease, and still takes far longer than the age of our universe.
As a fun exercise, try figuring out how many computers would be required to bring that number down to ~ 2^200 -- that would still take far longer than the age of our universe to compute ;)