(no subject)

[am]

Researchers have solved one aspect of
the discrete logarithm problem.
This is considered to be one of the
'holy grails' of algorithmic number
theory, on which the security of many
cryptographic systems used today is based.

R.Barbulescu, P.Gaudry, A.Joux, E.Thomé
"A Heuristic Quasi-Polynomial Algorithm
for Discrete Logarithm in Finite Fields
of Small Characteristic," Adv. in Cryptology
EUROCRYPT 2014, Lecture Notes in Computer
Science, Vol. 8441, 2014, pp.:1-16.

Update: Schneier's post.