[SATLUG] Mathematical breakthrough could bring disaster for ecommerce

[Mary Yatti]

Mathematical breakthrough could bring disaster for
ecommerce
Solution to Riemann hypothesis could crack
cryptography
Mark Samuels, Computing 07 Sep 2004

Mathematicians are close to solving a 150 year-old
theory - and the solution could add up to problems for
internet commerce.

The Riemann hypothesis, formulated by Georg Friedrich
Bernhard Riemann in 1859, would explain the apparently
random pattern of prime numbers.

Such numbers are the key to internet cryptography and
help banks keep customer's credit card data safe and
secure.

Louis de Branges, a French-born mathematician at
Purdue University in the US, has claimed to have proof
of the Riemann hypothesis, according to The Guardian.

The hypothesis is one of seven 'millennium problems'.

The US-based Clay Mathematics Institute offered $1m
(£563,000) to anyone that could solve one of these
problems four years ago.

De Branges's colleagues, however, are not convinced
that ecommerce is finished - yet.

'The proof he has announced is rather
incomprehensible. Now mathematicians are less sure
that the million has been won," Professor Marcus du
Sautoy of Oxford University told The Guardian.

But du Sautoy accepts that the proof could have large
implications for internet commerce.

'The proof should give us more understanding of how
the primes work. If it does, it will bring the whole
of ecommerce to its knees, overnight. So there are
very big implications.'