Computing Power, Key Length and Cryptanalysis. An Unending Battle?

TL;DR

This paper reviews methods to estimate the security duration of factoring-based encryption like RSA by relating computing power, bit length, and cryptanalysis, aiding in understanding encryption longevity.

Contribution

It establishes a relation between processing power, bit length, and security duration for factoring-based encryption, providing a framework for security estimation.

Findings

Relation between processing power and bit length for security assessment

Estimation method for encryption security span over time

Framework applicable to RSA and similar encryption methods

Abstract

There are several methods to measure computing power. On the other hand, Bit Length (BL) can be considered a metric to measure the strength of an asymmetric encryption method. We review here ways to determine the security, given an span of time, of a factoring-based encryption method, such as RSA, by establishing a relation between the processing power needed to break a given encryption and the given bit length used in the encryption. This relation would help us provide an estimation of the time span that an encryption method for a given BL will be secure from attacks.