[146492] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: [Cryptography] NSA and cryptanalysis
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (ianG)
Sat Aug 31 17:35:53 2013
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2013 16:37:03 +0300
From: ianG <iang@iang.org>
To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
In-Reply-To: <655F0F8F-AA89-4D08-A890-E941C5D6BD24@azet.org>
Errors-To: cryptography-bounces+crypto.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@metzdowd.com
On 31/08/13 06:10 AM, Aaron Zauner wrote:
>
> On Aug 30, 2013, at 1:17 PM, Jerry Leichter <leichter@lrw.com> wrote:
>
>> So the latest Snowden data contains hints that the NSA (a) spends a great deal of money on cracking encrypted Internet traffic; (b) recently made some kind of a cryptanalytic "breakthrough". What are we to make of this? (Obviously, this will all be wild speculation unless Snowden leaks more specific information - which wouldn't fit his style, at least as demonstrated so far.)
>
> I read that WP report too. IMHO this can only be related to RSA (factorization, side-channel attacks).
It's all speculation of course, but that is what it feels like to me.
An interesting clue from the earlier report is that they aren't there
yet, they're building towards a capability. They've figured out some
way to crack in theoretically, and with a big investment they'll get there.
Which suggests a combination of massive crunch power, keys on the margin
*and* cribs from side-channel attacks. The bright shiny new 3rd
division of the NSA is responsible for the side-channel attack. And it
was very expensive... Coincidence?
Or, it could all be fluff, designed to suck money from cow in w.DC.
Many a conman has made rich by claiming some secret invention; the
investors are the muggins for putting their money in without doing the
due diligence.
iang
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