This is all my personal point of view. INRIA published an official press release (no longer available on-line).

On July 14, 1995, Hal posted his SSL challenge: a record of a "secure" Netscape session encrypted with the RC4-128-EXPORT-40 algorithm.

I succeeded in cracking the challenge, but I was only the second one to find the key and read the contents of his session.

If you're a journalist, be sure to read my virtual press conference. If you have more questions, don't send me email, it's way too late now.

This is a more-or-less chronological account of what happened:


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Cute quote:

"Just remember, in 10 years no one will care. In fact most people probably don't care right now."

-- Conrad E. Muller

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