gsmith@BRAHMS.BERKELEY.EDU (02/08/88)
If anyone feels strongly enough about protection against forgeries, one system which does not involve any fixes by anyone but the user himself is to post a large number which is the product of two large enough (say, ~10^30) primes or pseudoprimes. In any subsequent article you wish to authenticate, you give a pointer to the previous article and the factorization. Then you supply a new composite number. I admit it is sort of goofy, but it could easily be automated (maybe when Matthew Wiener gets back I will ask if he wants to put it in "gnews", the posting program he is developing.) Anyway, the number above in "keywords" is my example of an authentication number. I doubt the forger(s) will be desperate enough to want to factor it, although a few people on the net like Bob Silverman might be able to. ucbvax!brahms!gsmith Gene Ward Smith/Brahms Gang/Berkeley CA 94720 Imagine what the world would be like if football was a worthy ritual performed in stadiums but mathematics was a misunderstood activity ignored by almost all.