RSA is currently doing an internal review of all of its products to see where the algorithm gets invoked and to change those. A company spokesman said the review is expected to be completed next ...

The RSA algorithm works because, when n is sufficiently large, deriving d from a known e and n will be an impractically long calculation — unless we know p, in which case we can use the shortcut.

The previous RSA record was set in 2010, with a key of 232 decimal digits and 768 bits. “We were actually faster than the previous record, even though we computed something larger,” says Thomé.