What is such a misogynistic link even doing on HN?
Not only is it offensive, but it literally offers no value -- banal visualisation, based on the author's PERSONAL EXPERIENCE and some data he got off a pickup artists' forum?
A good deal of encrypted material these days depends on the security of the private key, though -- e.g., HTTPS loses a good deal of security if the server's private key is known.
Given the reach of PRISM and related projects, and given that a lot of the internet was using 1024-bit RSA keys for HTTPS, it's a good question wondering how much of those private keys are still ... private.
Even if Moore's Law holds up that long, Second Law of Thermodynamics says you can't brute-force 256-bit keys[1].
However, it's entirely possible (though unlikely) that actual, significant progress will be made either in DLP or in attacking AES/RC4 -- at which case, yeah, that data is as good as clear.
In other cases, a very complex problem can be stated very simply, especially to a lay person.
A good example is the Jordan curve theorem[1], which at first sight seems like a trivial problem but in effect requires a good deal of topology and analysis to even understand why it is so complicated in the first place.
What's wrong with it? It keeps system with less cruft, allows the vendor to focus on current attack surface only, and makes everyone stay more-or-less up to date.
Just look at how quickly, relatively, the whole Flashback outbreak simply... died out.
Apple issued critical updates going back as far as Tiger, which is ANCIENT, and barely has 1% of the market.
A 2008 MacBook would easily run 10.6 and 10.7, both of which receive updates just fine.
"Some credit cards were stolen during breach of company X; to see if your card was stolen, please enter your card number, CCV and zip code!"
NEVER give your password to a third party; the only safe recourse is to change the LinkedIn password immediately, and if you used the same password elsewhere (tsk, tsk) change it there as well.
There is quite a non-trivial number of Chinese firms that have managed to do so, but admittedly not in the consumer space.