RSA Key Generated in 1998 Finally Cracked, Reveals Encrypted Message: 'First!'

A team of cryptography researchers at the University of Bonn has successfully factored a 512-bit RSA public key generated in 1998, an achievement that required 14 months of distributed computation across 2,400 machines -- only to discover that the encrypted message it protected was the single word 'First!' The key, designated RSA-512-LEGACY-0447, was part of a time capsule challenge issued by the now-defunct CryptoChallenge Foundation in 1998. Participants were invited to encrypt a message using a 512-bit RSA key and challenge the world to crack it. The foundation offered no prize, noting that 'the satisfaction of mathematical conquest is its own reward.' 'We approached this with the understanding that the plaintext could be anything,' said lead researcher Dr. Friedrich Prime. 'A political statement. A mathematical proof. A prophecy. Something worthy of the 14 months and approximately $180,000 in computing costs we invested in breaking it.' The plaintext, revealed on a Monday afternoon in the university's computer science auditorium before an audience of 60 colleagues, was: 'First!' 'The room was very quiet,' Dr. Prime recalled. 'Someone in the back row said are you serious, and I said yes, and then it was quiet again for a long time.' The message is believed to be a reference to internet culture of the late 1990s, in which users of online forums competed to post the first comment on new content, typically consisting of the word 'First!' and no other substantive contribution. 'It is a historically accurate artifact of 1998 internet culture,' said digital historian Dr. Anna Archive. 'The person who encrypted this message used military-grade cryptography to protect the most meaningless possible utterance. There is a kind of poetry in that. A terrible poetry, but poetry nonetheless.' Dr. Prime has confirmed that the experience has not diminished his enthusiasm for factoring challenges. 'The next key on our list is a 768-bit RSA key from 2003. We estimate it will take three years and $2 million to crack. The encrypted message could be anything. It could be profound. It could change our understanding of something. But honestly, at this point, I'd settle for a complete sentence.'