Section 6.5 was extremely short but illustrated an interesting history of the attempts to factor RSA. The theory behind the algorithm that was used for the deciphering of n in the section was not proven, but it was interesting how 600 people used 1600 computers to gradually factor n over 7 months.
Reading the supplement on wikipedia was also enlightenning because it illustrated how a lot of progress in math is accomplished: a challenge/problem is given and people attempt to solve or contribute to the solution. Unfortunately in this case, the RSA factorization challenge appears to have been abandonned but hopefully other methods will be used.
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