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Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer

reuters.com

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Re: Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer

#191

Post by [deleted] »

adriand wrote: post #99
suprgeek wrote: post #84

NSA invents weak (Back Door present) crypto algo. Pushes RSA to make it a Default in a key function (RNG) by giving them $10 Million. NSA points to RSA as an early adopter and gets NIST to certify it. Millions of systems are now protected by an RSA product that the NSA deliberately weakened. Any sufficiently skilled rogue actor can attack virtually any business that uses these RSA products - NSA (Cyber security Comma…

Minor quibble (and yes I'm as outraged by this as you are) - but "rouge" means "a red powder or cream used as a cosmetic for coloring the cheeks or lips", whereas "rogue" means "a person or thing that behaves in an aberrant, faulty, or unpredictable way", which is what you mean in this comment.

[deleted]

Re: Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer

#192

Post by hisham_hm »

elwell wrote: post #141
vdaniuk wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many times did you check your comment to make sure all grammar and punctuation is perfect? :)

Is wasn't perfect. There was a space between "but" and the ellipsis. Not to mention the several other mistakes.

Which _several_ other mistakes?

Re: Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer

#193

Post by dobbsbob »

nitrogen wrote: post #185
obstacle1 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>...I trust his opinions on security and crypto. And here, ladies and gents, is exactly why we'll continue to inhabit an exploitable world forevermore.

Trusting tptacek in the form of completing and learning from the Matasano crypto challenges would lead to a much less exploitable world forevermore. It's okay to provisionally trust the word of someone who has previously and clearly demonstrated actual competence.

I'm also doing the Matasano crypto challenges and they are pretty priceless, don't know of anywhere else who offers a similar learning experience by breaking stuff, for free even.

Re: Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer

#194

Post by obstacle1 »

enraged_camel wrote: post #151
ye wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of it from the executives perspective: Option A: keep mouth shut, make a shit ton of money Option B: become a martyr, face prison time People like Snowden are rare.

>>People like Snowden are rare. In all honesty, Snowden is a 30 year old single dude, and as far as I know, he doesn't have kids. Do you think he would have done what he did if he had a family to look after? In my opinion a person's first responsibility is to their family. So yeah, if you're married (like these executives probably are) and you're facing the choice between option A and option B, you should absolutely…

So the nuclear family combined with a distributed economy is basically a convenient tool for justifying atrocities of all kinds. Just feeding the kids, right?

Maybe not having kids is actually the morally correct choice, then?

Re: Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer

#196

Post by majke »

tptacek wrote: post #184
declan wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other executives have. Look at what happened to Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio after challenging illegal NSA warrantless wiretapping requests. (Hint: he just got out of federal prison about two months ago.) http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230398390... Mr. Nacchio said he still believes his insider-trading prosecution was government retaliation for rebuffing requests in 2001 from the National Security Age…

Nacchio defrauded shareholders out of millions of dollars. Let's be careful about who we're valorizing.

I'm generally curious about this. I have no idea how to judge Nacchio's career. Can you point some facts proving this point of view?

Or maybe: How was his position any different than yours, if you had a request from the NSA that you wouldn't want to fulfil, knowing that rejecting it could destroy your company, what would you do?

Re: Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer

#197

Post by disposition2 »

tptacek wrote: post #184
declan wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other executives have. Look at what happened to Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio after challenging illegal NSA warrantless wiretapping requests. (Hint: he just got out of federal prison about two months ago.) http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230398390... Mr. Nacchio said he still believes his insider-trading prosecution was government retaliation for rebuffing requests in 2001 from the National Security Age…

Nacchio defrauded shareholders out of millions of dollars. Let's be careful about who we're valorizing.

Too bad he didn't work for a Chase.

Re: Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer

#198

Post by elwell »

hisham_hm wrote: post #192
elwell wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is wasn't perfect. There was a space between "but" and the ellipsis. Not to mention the several other mistakes.

Which _several_ other mistakes?

note, -> note:

guy -> guy,

using 'but' twice in the sentence

etc -> etc. (noted by author)

in general, the phrasing of the second sentence is questionable. perhaps it should be two sentences with a period after "I'm lying"

Re: Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer

#200

Post by PhantomGremlin »

apaprocki wrote: post #130
beagle3 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yubikey NEO (latest revision) is like the one you already have + a java card that comes with a PGPcard app (and supposedly, you can write your own apps) They don't have a timer like the RSA key fobs, and need a USB or NFC connection - but are generally very reliable, and given their constraints. The questiion, of course, is what reason you have to believe that yubico (and for that matter, gemalto, g10code and the res…

Trusting trust :) This is one of, but not the main reasons why we build our own (Bloomberg B-Unit, PDF is the only good pic I see: http://www.bloomberg.com/professional/files/2013/11/b-unit_3... )

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Speaking of "trust", Bloomberg lost quite a lot of it when their reporters spied on their customers.

Bloomberg Spying Went On For Years After Execs Knew: Report http://www.valuewalk.com/2013/08/bloomberg-spying-went-on-fo...

You were probably just as horrified as most of the other employees at Bloomberg when that info became public. The bad apples cost Bloomberg a lot of reputation. My point is that "trust" is very elusive, very easy to lose, very hard to gain.

OTOH, are the "bad apples" at Bloomberg who condoned that behavior still in positions of power? Did they even get a slap on the wrist? If I were at Goldman, JPM, Citi, etc. I wouldn't "trust" Bloomberg until I saw some higher up people fall on their sword for that fiasco.

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