The NSA's crypto "breakthrough"
economist.com
The NSA's crypto "breakthrough"
1–10 of 101 posts
Re: The NSA's crypto "breakthrough"
#2Sounds like we need a couple more Snowden's to come out from NSA.
Re: The NSA's crypto "breakthrough"
#3The Economist:
>Does the NSA have a quantum computer in the basement of its headquarters in Maryland (pictured above)? It is theoretically possible, but pretty unlikely...
A Canadian firm called D-Wave is presently selling a specialised kind of quantum computer—Lockheed Martin, an American defence giant, and Google have each bought one—but it is not suitable for this kind of work.
In-Q-Tel - "About Us"
>"We make investments in startup companies that have developed commercially-focused technologies that will provide strong, near-term advantages (within 36 months) to the IC mission. We design our strategic investments to accelerate product development and delivery for this ready-soon innovation, and specifically to help companies add capabilities needed by our customers in the Intelligence Community.
"D-Wave Systems, Inc., the World's First Commercial Quantum Computing Company, Secures $30 Million in a New Equity Round From Investors Including Bezos Expeditions and In-Q-Tel" [0]
"Burnaby, BC - Milpitas, CA - October 4, 2012 - D-Wave Systems, Inc. today announced that it has closed a $30 million round of equity funding. Bezos Expeditions and In-Q-Tel (IQT) have joined the investment round. Bezos Expeditions is the personal investment company of Jeff Bezos. IQT is the strategic investment firm that delivers innovative technology solutions in support of the missions of the U.S. Intelligence Community."
[0] http://www.dwavesys.com/en/pressreleases.html#investment_201...
Re: The NSA's crypto "breakthrough"
#4Somewhat misleading title. No answers, just more questions on the topic.
Re: The NSA's crypto "breakthrough"
#5One of the "nice" things about the NSA: they rely on pretty standard crypto--the same kind the rest of us do!--for their less sensitive, but still classified, secrets. NSA Ciphersuite B (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_Suite_B_Cryptography) is built into a lot of gov/mil communications technology. And it's just RSA, ECDHE, and so on--all that same stuff available in TLS.
In other words: if the NSA break one of these "public" algorithms, you'll be able to tell; they'll soon be picking new Suite B ciphers. (There will be a time-delay, but not of the intentional "let's capture+break foreign transmissions before scaring them away from this cipher" kind. Re-securing our own transmissions takes priority, always. Even if it was broken because of some "quantum leap"--pardon the pun--we have to assume our enemies are advancing their own tech at roughly the same rate, so if we can crack it, they can too.)
Re: The NSA's crypto "breakthrough"
#6This article does a few things that make it seem poorly written. First, there's the sentence "But, analysing a particular colossal number and trying to determine whether it possesses prime factors is colossally difficult."
No, it's not difficult to determine whether a large number has prime factors. The answer to that question is yes. Determining which prime numbers are factors is extremely hard, and what they should have said.
Second, they use an example from GCHQ's public key cryptography work rather than the more relevant NSA work on differential cryptanalysis, which became public knowledge in the late 1980s, was discovered by IBM in 1974, and which the NSA was already "well aware of" in 1974 [0].
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_cryptanalysis#His...
Re: The NSA's crypto "breakthrough"
#7Sounds like we need a couple more Snowden's to come out from NSA.
Indeed.. but honestly, I'm not hopeful. I would have thought that shenangians on the level going on in the NSA (for as long as they've been at it) would have led to more conscience-burdened folks blowing the whistle either in public as Snowden did, or more covertly.
But who knows. Maybe Snowden emboldened a few people who will be able to shine some light on these things in a more quiet manner.
Re: The NSA's crypto "breakthrough"
#8Sounds like we need a couple more Snowden's to come out from NSA.
Why? Because the government doesn't deserve to have any secret programs whatsoever? I've said it before and I'll say it again: Even if leaking XKeyscore and PRISM was morally justified, leaking the intelligence budget or leaking other programs is probably unwise. Remember that when we talk about leaking, we're talking about weakening the American government. We should at least think about the implications.
Re: The NSA's crypto "breakthrough"
#9Breaking public-key crypto would have to be the biggest coup in SIGINT in the history of ever. Much bigger than cracking the Enigma. Just thinking about the sheer volume of internet traffic at every level and in every country that relies on the security of encryption makes the possibility of it being fundamentally broken a literal nightmare.
I don't think it has happened. But if it had, that would be the kind of secret that would go in the President's book of secrets right along with the existence of National Treasure or the Men in Black. :P Snowden would never have a clue.
Re: The NSA's crypto "breakthrough"
#10One of the "nice" things about the NSA: they rely on pretty standard crypto--the same kind the rest of us do!--for their less sensitive, but still classified, secrets. NSA Ciphersuite B ( http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_Suite_B_Cryptography ) is built into a lot of gov/mil communications technology. And it's just RSA, ECDHE, and so on--all that same stuff available in TLS. In other words: if the NSA break one of t…
By "our enemies" you mean enemies of the USG, I assume.
I agree with your point, but do you think they'd force widespread cipher switch across government bodies? Or leave other government entities using broken encryption so they can more easiler spy?