Read the article, they broke 512 bit and 660 bit RSA encryption, which by your own math would be exponentially harder to break than 256 bit. And they cracked both versions. Once that was announced, the RSA Challenge was retracted, full well knowing that if they could crack 512 and 660, they could crack all of them on the list. They did manage to get almost 40k out of the challenge, but they wont get any more due to the fact that is is easily crackable now. RSA-768 was the last prize awarded, then retracted before payment.

 

Quote - did what? break 64-bit encryption in a 5 year span using distributed computing?

we are talking 128 bit, 256 bit - each billions of times as strong as the last.

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