THE search for the world鈥檚 largest prime number might lead to a jail term. A
Colorado man is now under investigation for allegedly hijacking a phone
company鈥檚 computers to enlist their aid in finding a record-breaking prime.
Prime numbers鈥攖hose that can鈥檛 be divided evenly by any whole number
other than 1 and themselves鈥攁re the atoms of the mathematical world. Just
as all molecules are made up of atoms, all numbers are the product of prime
numbers.
Though there are an infinite number of primes, big ones are tough to find. So
for many years, mathematicians have been vying with each other to find larger
and larger prime numbers.
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Since November 1996, the world records has been held by the Great Internet
Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS)鈥攁 ragtag bunch of number-lovers who have
devoted their computers鈥� spare time to looking for ever larger primes. Their
combined computing power is 200 gigaflops鈥攔oughly equivalent to seven
top-of-the-range supercomputers. Thanks to that awesome power, GIMPS has found
three record-breaking primes so far. The biggest is more than 900 000 digits
long.
Aaron Blosser, a computer expert who worked as a contractor for US West, a
telecommunications company based in Denver, Colorado, gave its vast network of
computer workstations the task of searching for even larger primes. The program
he unleashed onto the company鈥檚 network should have only done its calculations
when the computers鈥� processors were idle. But US West claims that things didn鈥檛
work out that way.
Company spokesman David Beigie says the program disrupted US West鈥檚 directory
information service. 鈥淭he computers need to look up databases,鈥� he says.
鈥淚nstead of taking fifteen seconds, a request took more like a minute.鈥�
Beigie says the problem was tracked down to the prime-hunting software
installed by Blosser. He didn鈥檛 ask permission from the people who oversee the
security of US West鈥檚 computer network before he installed the program.
Blosser鈥檚 attempts to convince US West鈥檚 network managers that the program
posed no security risk to the company have fallen on deaf ears. His home has
been searched by the FBI and his computer equipment has been confiscated. Though
Blosser has not yet been charged, Beigie says: 鈥淲e are recommending that he be
prosecuted to the full extent of the law.鈥�
Blosser protests his innocence. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 hack in or anything,鈥� he claims.
鈥淚 used my own name and password.鈥�
鈥淯S West is overreacting,鈥� says George Woltman, a retired computer programmer
in Orlando, Florida, who leads GIMPS and wrote the prime-hunting software. 鈥淚t
wasn鈥檛 a malicious thing. He wasn鈥檛 trying to do any damage.鈥�
Though Blosser managed to use more than 2500 computers to do an enormous
amount of computing in a short period of time, he didn鈥檛 find a monster prime.
鈥淚t takes a few weeks before you get a result,鈥� says Woltman.