How Advanced Is the NSA’s Cryptanalysis — And Can We Resist It?
WIRED Magazine, 09.04.13
The latest Snowden document is the US intelligence “black budget.” There’s a lot of information in the few pages the Washington Post decided to publish, including an introduction by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. In it, he drops a tantalizing hint: “Also, we are investing in groundbreaking cryptanalytic capabilities to defeat adversarial cryptography and exploit internet traffic.”
Honestly, I’m skeptical. Whatever the NSA has up its top-secret sleeves, the mathematics of cryptography will still be the most secure part of any encryption system. I worry a lot more about poorly designed cryptographic products, software bugs, bad passwords, companies that collaborate with the NSA to leak all or part of the keys, and insecure computers and networks. Those are where the real vulnerabilities are, and where the NSA spends the bulk of its efforts.
See Also:
2013 Open Source Agency: Executive Access Point 2.1
2012 PREPRINT: The Craft of Intelligence 3.5
Graphic: Jim Bamford on the Human Brain
Graphic: Tony Zinni on 4% “At Best”
Human Intelligence: All Human, All Minds, All the Time
Intelligence for the President–and Everyone Else
NATO OSINT to OSE/M4IS2 Round-Up 2.0
No More Secrets: Open Source Information and the Reshaping of U.S. Intelligence
Open Source Intelligence in a Networked World
The Battle for the Soul of the Republic
Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State
