83. Neon Thirty One
Professor Park Soo-Soo’s lab, Korea University.
“Have you been to the conference all this time?”
Professor Park shook his head at my question.
“No, I’ve been on a few trips.”
“If it’s a trip… Did you go on summer vacation? Where have you been?”
“I went to Mt. Geumgang.”
“Perhaps, a tour of Mt. Geumgang… Are you talking?”
The tour of Mt. Geumgang started in November of last year.
It was a package tour that departed from Donghae Port and arrived at Jangjeon Port in North Korea to see Mt. Geumgang.
Immediately after the first tour started, I heard that displaced people had to wait several months due to a flood of applications.
The professor nodded with a bright expression, and I continued.
“I heard you have to wait quite a while, so when did you apply?”
“I applied as soon as the tour started last winter. It was originally scheduled to depart after the spring semester, but an accident happened at that time, so I only went there now.”
Last June, I heard the news that tourism had been completely banned because a tourist had advised a North Korean employee to defect. Fortunately, tourism seems to have resumed.
“How about Mt. Geumgang?”
Professor Park answered my question with a happy expression.
“Good, good! It was so good. It reminds me of when I was young. Heh heh heh—!”
“Professor, when I was young… then… ?”
“Yeah, right. Just before the 6.25 riot, I went to Mt. Geumgang with my father.”
Professor Park closed his eyes with a pleasant expression as if he was reminiscing on an event a long time ago. When the professor opened his eyes again, I said.
“Then, did you go on this trip to Mt. Geumgang with your family?”
At my words, Professor Park shook his head with a bitter expression.
“Dr. Yun or Seok Yoon didn’t tell you?”
I don’t know what’s going on, but from the look on the professor’s face, I realized that I had made a speech mistake.
Professor Park continued speaking as if trying to change the topic.
“Yeah, you said you found an interesting connection between the Riemann hypothesis and RSA?”
“ah… ! yes that’s right. But because I was in a hurry, I couldn’t prepare the formula in advance and bring it.”
Professor Park handed me a clean piece of paper and a pen, and I started explaining by writing down each formula on the paper.
“This is a function that converts the non-name zeros of the Riemann zeta function into continuous values. This function is converted into a symmetric function based on the origin in 10-dimensional space. This converted function… … .”
Finally, I continued by writing down the process of finding the inverse function on a piece of paper.
“It is true that the process of finding the inverse function is very artificial. Anyway, this new correction term must be added, and this correction term is derived from the assumption that the reference point for countless non-obvious zeros on the critical line is not the origin of the complex plane.”
As my explanation came to a close, the seven sheets of paper were packed with formulas back and forth, and while I was writing the last formula I derived, Professor Park opened his mouth.
“There aren’t any parts that have been skipped.”
“Yeah, to be honest, there are a lot of sloppy parts. It is also true that it is mathematically imperfect.”
Professor Park nodded silently, and I continued, pointing to the last formula I wrote down.
“I tried substituting the coefficient, N, of the RSA cipher into this formula… .”
Professor Park cut off my words and said.
“Wait, are you talking about the RSA modulus value?”
Both the RSA modulus and the RSA coefficient refer to N values.
A value that is the product of two huge primes.
“yes.”
“The number is too large, wouldn’t it be easy to calculate it with a computer?”
“Yes, it was a bit complicated to allocate memory, and I had to write the code to find the function value itself in base 64.”
“So, what is the value obtained like this?”
“You get Euler’s pi function.”
Professor Park opened his mouth with an expression of disbelief at my words.
“haha–! It could be, it could be… .”
“It is true that when the value of N is small, many errors occur. So, I thought no at first, but as the N value increases, the accuracy also increases, and I confirmed that it shows an accuracy of more than 99% for N values with more than 100 digits.”
“Then this function… . They say you can break RSA… .”
Professor Park was speechless.
“yes that’s right. In fact, I even hacked the server security program this morning.”
“Security programs for servers?”
“Yes, ＜Shield Safe>.”
“Shield.com’s ＜ShieldSafe>?”
“yes.”
The professor looked back at the formula I had written, and asked me again with a look of disbelief.
“You really hacked ＜Shield Safe>?”
“yes.”
“haha–! You really broke RSA?”
I said with strength in my voice in response to the professor’s repeated question.
“Yeah, I made over 300,000 RSA coefficients. This is the conclusion we have drawn after substituting and checking the values we have created.”
Only then did the professor’s expression of disbelief began to change little by little.
“To be honest, I still can’t believe you. I can’t believe there’s a function that disables RSA. haha–!”
I smiled quietly, and Professor Park opened his mouth again.
“Jungho, when we first met… No, do you remember the second time we met?”
I nodded my head without saying a word.
“When was that… ? Was it 10 years ago?”
“It was 11 years ago. It was right after I entered elementary school.”
“Yeah, right. Because at that time, the reporter of the century said that he was a freshman in elementary school.”
My expression hardened slightly at the name of the reporter of the century, and the professor continued.
“I was really good back then. You did really well, back then, heh heh–!”
“What do you mean? good job… ?”
“At that time, Jung-ho, I was looking for you. You did great, then. haha–! Actually, I thought a lot about whether or not to go that day. Heh heh–! Do you remember what I said at your house that day?”
Of course I remember
Those were the words that made my heart race again.
I nodded my head silently, and Professor Park continued.
“Thank you, Jeongho. Thank you very much for accepting my proposal that day, and thank you for being my partner in the research of the Riemann hypothesis.”
The person I was thankful for was me.
The fact that I was able to study the Riemann hypothesis without any hindrance until now was actually thanks to the help of Professor Park Soo-Soo.
In fact, Professor Park’s research direction based on hermeneutics was very different from my research method using set theory, topology, and even algebra.
read at noblemtl.com
Nevertheless, Professor Park has always been a strong supporter of my research.
I was also going to say thank you to the professor, but I felt strange and shut my mouth.
Professor Park patted my shoulder and continued.
“Jeong-ho, seeing how you move forward step by step like this, I think I will probably see the Riemann hypothesis solved before I die. Heh heh heh—-!”
As Professor Park said… .
Can I really solve the Riemann hypothesis?
The honest answer is ‘difficult’.
I also think it is very difficult.
At Professor Park’s continuous praise, I felt like my hands and feet were shrinking.
To switch the topic, I opened my mouth carefully.
“I, Professor. What do you think about publishing this ‘rejection function’ as a thesis?”
“Reject function?”
When I explained what happened with the major’s sister, Professor Park smiled and said:
“haha–! It’s a deprecated function… That name is really good. By the way… .”
Professor Park spoke with a very serious expression.
“I think you better keep your mouth shut on this rejection function for the time being.”
“Why do you think so?”
Professor Park gave three reasons.
First, the collapse of the RSA cryptosystem would bring too much chaos.
Second, even if it is written as a thesis, it has little academic value.
And third, I might be in danger.
The first and second reasons are the same for me.
But could I be in danger?
Regarding the third reason, Professor Park said:
“I know that intelligence agencies are monitoring cryptography professors in the United States without knowing it.”
In my past life, I have heard similar stories.
He was a geeky-style cryptography professor, and once said he was asked for advice from an intelligence agency.
When the advisory meeting was over, the intelligence agency staff asked for confidentiality and wrote a word on a Post-it and handed it to him, which he said was the ID he used on an adult-only site.
Professor Park continued.
“It is true that RSA in particular is used more in military ciphers. But a high school student in a small country called Korea has found a mathematical function that disables RSA?”
“… .”
“Well. Maybe I’m being overly sensitive, and bad things can happen to you.”
Professor Park smiled at my surprised expression and said,
“How about doing this?”
“how?”
“Let’s keep the rejection function a secret for the time being. You and I, only the two of us know this. And why not develop a cryptographic algorithm to replace RSA?”
“… !”
“I think it would be good in many ways to announce a rejection function after an alternative cryptosystem is prepared. What do you think?”
At Professor Park’s words, I nodded and said.
“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea too.”
the next morning.
The portal’s internet news was literally in turmoil.
It is said that the file submitted by reporter So-jeong to the prosecution recorded her conversations with fellow reporters.
It was not a conversation with one or two people, but the voices of 29 reporters.
Reporters from other media companies as well as the Daedong Ilbo are included, and it is said that among the 29 people there are many senior-level journalists.
Most of the recorded contents were conversations that came and went at a drinking party, and it was a story of writing an article-type advertisement and receiving money.
For reference, it was yesterday afternoon when reporter So-jeong submitted the recording file to the police, and of course, the authenticity of the recording file was not revealed.
This means that all the stories that are floating around in the internet news right now are leaked by the prosecution.
Unsurprisingly, public opinion on the Internet for a search and seizure of the Daedong Ilbo began to form, and when I went back to the Internet portal after breakfast, a news article came up saying that the prosecution had applied for a search warrant for the Daedong Ilbo.
I clicked on the news titled ＜A press search and seizure, is it really possible?>.
If the warrant is passed by the court, it will be the first seizure and search of the press in 10 years since 1989.
read at noblemtl.com
New articles related to the search and seizure keep coming up, but there are no more articles about the media crackdown.
That evening.
There was an article that a bill to regulate article-type advertising was proposed.
According to the article, the bill was finally introduced with the approval of a total of 51 members of the ruling and opposition lawmakers, and the proposed bill will soon be referred to the committee.
* * *
At the same time, Section 4 of the Anti-aircraft Investigation Bureau of the National Intelligence Service.
Manager Kim Jung-soo, who is looking at the monitor, has a serious expression on his face.
＜Initiation of bill to regulate advertising articles>
When Manager Kim Jung-su clicked on an article on an internet portal, a long article appeared on the monitor.
He slowly scrolled through the article, and the end of the article describing the legislative process read:
‘If both the legislative notice and the Judiciary Committee review process go smoothly, this bill is expected to go through the legislative notice process and be presented at the regular National Assembly plenary session in September. Judging from the current atmosphere in which middle-ranking members of the opposition and middle-level lawmakers are in favor of the bill, it is expected that the bill to regulate advertising articles will pass the Judiciary Committee review and the resolution of the plenary session with ease.’
Team leader Kim Jeong-soo, who saw the article, muttered to himself.
“September, September… … Was it September then?”
His first life is now not even remembered properly.
He frowned and traced his memory, but only a few major events vaguely come to his mind.
Events that happened in the first life, but did not happen in the subsequent life… .
The first is a mixed class of middle and high school boys.
The second is the Article-Type Advertising Regulation Act.
Third is… .
“Chief Kim Jung-soo?”
“yes?”
“Aren’t you off work?”