What is not being said is "Which if any of the CAs have been compromised?" There is this ongoing conversation of "Use HTTPS" (as one of the defense mechanisms) but there is been very little discussion from what I have seen around the scenario where CAs have been compromised/backdoor'ed.
How Advanced Is the NSA's Cryptanalysis, and Can We Resist It?
21–30 of 62 posts
Re: How Advanced Is the NSA's Cryptanalysis, and Can We Resist It?
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the other hand your work is secret and you will never be recognized for what you do.
You would be recognized inside the NSA, a large technical population. In addition, as with the CIA and other clandestine US government organizations, they appeal to patriotism and helping the national interest. That appeal seems to be fraying somewhat lately for the NSA.
If they're really trying to keep it secret, not even the NSA rank and file will know. It's all mostly need to know anyway.
Re: How Advanced Is the NSA's Cryptanalysis, and Can We Resist It?
#23If you're a brilliant mathematician who has made a breakthrough in breaking cryptography, wouldn't you want to make a deal with the NSA? Reveal breakthrough in return for more knowledge.
Well, on those feet, I'd ask for money, not knowledge. That has the advantage that the NSA may actually accept the deal, instead of just blackmailing me (or worse). That is, if I wanted to make any kind of deal with the NSA.
Why would you expect a lawless organization like this to actually pay you?
It might just be easier for them to say "Thanks, but we already knew that, and by the way that's ultra classified so we'll give you the option of a clean suicide."
Re: How Advanced Is the NSA's Cryptanalysis, and Can We Resist It?
#24What is not being said is "Which if any of the CAs have been compromised?" There is this ongoing conversation of "Use HTTPS" (as one of the defense mechanisms) but there is been very little discussion from what I have seen around the scenario where CAs have been compromised/backdoor'ed.
I really wish that I could mod this up a LOT ... even with TOR exit nodes + HTTPS, there's still a really good chance of things not being secure...
Re: How Advanced Is the NSA's Cryptanalysis, and Can We Resist It?
#25Here is an interesting startup idea that may be a step towards a solution.
Setup an organization that gives a tick of approval similar to ISO quality standards but for NSA Free software. It would involve selling your logo to business that meet a defined list of processes and practices to harden their software against 3rd party spying and security flaws.
Then you can preform audits and sell your logo on a yearly basis to businesses around the globe.
Re: How Advanced Is the NSA's Cryptanalysis, and Can We Resist It?
#26Schneier has been giving some pretty weird advice lately. This is probably the weirdest thing I've seen from him: "Prefer conventional discrete-log-based systems over elliptic-curve systems; the latter have constants that the NSA influences when they can." There are plenty of ECC systems that have virtually no chance of NSA influence. Curve25519/Ed25519 come to mind.
I find his advice to be spot on and I see proof of it every day. People still use 'Password1' as the key to their AES-256 bit encrypted file system.
You don't have to be a mathematician to attack AES-256, you just need to know humans and do some password analysis.
Re: How Advanced Is the NSA's Cryptanalysis, and Can We Resist It?
#27Does anyone know of any research surrounding the usage of meshnets (security wise)? I know they are springing up in places like chicago (I'm following the forum[0] so I can at least be conscious of the technical aspects and their implementations when I can do something like that where I live), but somehow they remain disconnected from general conversation (on HN) surrounding passive surveillance. [0] http://cmn-forum…
The security model of meshnets always seemed to me to be very similar to the original internet. I.e., to the extent there is any, the endpoints are responsible for providing it for themselves.
Re: How Advanced Is the NSA's Cryptanalysis, and Can We Resist It?
#28Schneier has been giving some pretty weird advice lately. This is probably the weirdest thing I've seen from him: "Prefer conventional discrete-log-based systems over elliptic-curve systems; the latter have constants that the NSA influences when they can." There are plenty of ECC systems that have virtually no chance of NSA influence. Curve25519/Ed25519 come to mind.
I find his advice to be spot on and I see proof of it every day. People still use 'Password1' as the key to their AES-256 bit encrypted file system. You don't have to be a mathematician to attack AES-256, you just need to know humans and do some password analysis.
But what does that have to do with the relative security of DLP vs EC?
Re: How Advanced Is the NSA's Cryptanalysis, and Can We Resist It?
#29If you're a brilliant mathematician who has made a breakthrough in breaking cryptography, wouldn't you want to make a deal with the NSA? Reveal breakthrough in return for more knowledge.
I see two much more plausible scenarios: 1) Publish. Get famous. Guaranteed employment for the rest of your life. 2) Use it to break into systems. Become rich or get caught and jailed, likely for life.
#1 Pretty much guarantees a non-poverty lifestyle too :)
Re: How Advanced Is the NSA's Cryptanalysis, and Can We Resist It?
#30We can and we must. I'm glad that Bruce Schneier has now had a chance to view some of the primary source documents from the Snowden leaks, because I trust him to speak frankly and I trust his technical ability. (I'm referring to http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/09/the_nsa_is_bre... , not the above link). Both he and Snowden have essentially said that we can still trust the math. Modern symmetric crypto has…
Just started this...
https://gist.github.com/6458569
Feel free to fork and feedback.... Adversarial FTW.