[146321] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: [Cryptography] Snowden "fabricated digital keys" to get access
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Phillip Hallam-Baker)
Thu Jul 4 15:20:48 2013
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
In-Reply-To: <87a9m74g7q.fsf@mid.deneb.enyo.de>
Date: Thu, 4 Jul 2013 14:47:16 -0400
From: Phillip Hallam-Baker <hallam@gmail.com>
To: Florian Weimer <fw@deneb.enyo.de>
Cc: cryptography@metzdowd.com, John Gilmore <gnu@toad.com>
Errors-To: cryptography-bounces+crypto.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@metzdowd.com
--===============5546153670455972080==
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=e89a8f642dfcd9ddc204e0b4015b
--e89a8f642dfcd9ddc204e0b4015b
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
I read an article today that claims one and a half million people have a
Top Secret clearance.
That kind of demonstrates how little Top Secret now means.
On Sun, Jun 30, 2013 at 2:16 PM, Florian Weimer <fw@deneb.enyo.de> wrote:
> * John Gilmore:
>
> > [John here. Let's try some speculation about what this phrase,
> > "fabricating digital keys", might mean.]
>
> Most likely, as part of his job at the contractor, he had
> administrator access to a system which was used for key management,
> perhaps to apply security updates, manage backups or fix the
> occasional glitch. This is precisely the kind of low-level grunt work
> that I expect is outsourced to contractors.
>
> It's also possible that he was directly charged with key management.
> I can image that someone thought that as long as some agency committee
> made the actual decisions, it was fine to hire an external data typist
> who entered the committee decision in to the key management system.
>
> It's really funny that "NSA-level security" has now turned pejorative.
> _______________________________________________
> The cryptography mailing list
> cryptography@metzdowd.com
> http://www.metzdowd.com/mailman/listinfo/cryptography
>
--
Website: http://hallambaker.com/
--e89a8f642dfcd9ddc204e0b4015b
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
<div dir=3D"ltr">I read an article today that claims one and a half million=
people have a Top Secret clearance.<div><br></div><div style>That kind of =
demonstrates how little Top Secret now means.</div></div><div class=3D"gmai=
l_extra">
<br><br><div class=3D"gmail_quote">On Sun, Jun 30, 2013 at 2:16 PM, Florian=
Weimer <span dir=3D"ltr"><<a href=3D"mailto:fw@deneb.enyo.de" target=3D=
"_blank">fw@deneb.enyo.de</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class=3D"gma=
il_quote" style=3D"margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-lef=
t:1ex">
* John Gilmore:<br>
<div class=3D"im"><br>
> [John here. =A0Let's try some speculation about what this phrase,<=
br>
> "fabricating digital keys", might mean.]<br>
<br>
</div>Most likely, as part of his job at the contractor, he had<br>
administrator access to a system which was used for key management,<br>
perhaps to apply security updates, manage backups or fix the<br>
occasional glitch. =A0This is precisely the kind of low-level grunt work<br=
>
that I expect is outsourced to contractors.<br>
<br>
It's also possible that he was directly charged with key management.<br=
>
I can image that someone thought that as long as some agency committee<br>
made the actual decisions, it was fine to hire an external data typist<br>
who entered the committee decision in to the key management system.<br>
<br>
It's really funny that "NSA-level security" has now turned pe=
jorative.<br>
<div class=3D"HOEnZb"><div class=3D"h5">___________________________________=
____________<br>
The cryptography mailing list<br>
<a href=3D"mailto:cryptography@metzdowd.com">cryptography@metzdowd.com</a><=
br>
<a href=3D"http://www.metzdowd.com/mailman/listinfo/cryptography" target=3D=
"_blank">http://www.metzdowd.com/mailman/listinfo/cryptography</a><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear=3D"all"><div><br></div>-- <br>=
Website: <a href=3D"http://hallambaker.com/">http://hallambaker.com/</a><br=
>
</div>
--e89a8f642dfcd9ddc204e0b4015b--
--===============5546153670455972080==
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline
_______________________________________________
The cryptography mailing list
cryptography@metzdowd.com
http://www.metzdowd.com/mailman/listinfo/cryptography
--===============5546153670455972080==--
