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Thanks for this, I agree it makes sense that they would have, I was just a bit disappointed that Bruce didn't enumerate any of this in his post. In fairness, al

Thanks for this, I agree it makes sense that they would have, I was just a bit disappointed that Bruce didn't enumerate any of this in his post. In fairness, all of this stuff is probably "duh" to him, and his normal audience, but it's not so obvious to everyone. Here's another thought: what if the NSA hacked Hacking Team, and they were also the ones to release all the data publicly. Re: #3 – do you have any links to that info? (I'm not challenging you to prove what you said, I'm just curious, if you don't have anything readily available, I'll Google search like a good Internet commenter :))

rnovak 11y ago
I think it would be hard to go through everything, but off the top of my head: https://snowdenarchive.cjfe.org/greenstone/collect/snowden1/index/assoc/HASH0127/fe6ee959.dir/doc.pdf https://snowdenarchive.cjfe.org/greenstone/collect/snowden1/... Quote: For the past decade, NSA has lead an aggressive, multi-pronged effort to break widely used Internet encryption technologies Their Motto: "We penetrate targets' defences."
- codezero 11y ago
  Thanks a bunch.
- PhantomGremlin 11y ago
  "We penetrate targets' defences." That would more likely be a GCHQ or MI5 or MI6 motto than an NSA motto. A quick bit of Googling finds that the "PTD" in the slides refers to GCHQ's Penetration Targeting Defences unit. So it's their motto. Which explains the spelling.
rudolf0 11y ago
It is a bit odd that Schneier was stating it as an obvious fact despite no evidence. Of course, the NSA had and has great incentive to compromise them, as well as the ability to do so, but it's still an empty claim (even if it's probably a true one).
- rnovak 11y ago
  Keep in mind also that I think he has access to more documents than we have. He made this statement a while back[1]: I am reviewing some of the documents Snowden has provided to the Guardian. Because of the delicate nature of this, I cannot comment on what I have seen. [1]http://www.technologyreview.com/news/519336/bruce-schneier-nsa-spying-is-making-us-less-safe/ http://www.technologyreview.com/news/519336/bruce-schneier-n...
tptacek 11y ago
For whatever it's worth: I do not believe --- and this is an opinion I think is shared by lots of people in my field --- that Scheier has any special insight into the software and network exploitation capabilities of NSA. Schneier is a writer first, then a policy guy next, then an academic/standards-group cryptographer. Information security is a huge field with lots of subfields, and nobody specializes in all of them. My take on this post on his blog is that it's probably a stretch for him to be analyzing the Hacking Team story in any depth.
- nitrogen 11y ago
  Didn't Schneier have access to the Snowden docs, though?

rnovak 11y ago

I think it would be hard to go through everything, but off the top of my head: https://snowdenarchive.cjfe.org/greenstone/collect/snowden1/index/assoc/HASH0127/fe6ee959.dir/doc.pdf https://snowdenarchive.cjfe.org/greenstone/collect/snowden1/... Quote: For the past decade, NSA has lead an aggressive, multi-pronged effort to break widely used Internet encryption technologies Their Motto: "We penetrate targets' defences."

codezero 11y ago
Thanks a bunch.
PhantomGremlin 11y ago
"We penetrate targets' defences." That would more likely be a GCHQ or MI5 or MI6 motto than an NSA motto. A quick bit of Googling finds that the "PTD" in the slides refers to GCHQ's Penetration Targeting Defences unit. So it's their motto. Which explains the spelling.

rudolf0 11y ago

It is a bit odd that Schneier was stating it as an obvious fact despite no evidence. Of course, the NSA had and has great incentive to compromise them, as well as the ability to do so, but it's still an empty claim (even if it's probably a true one).

rnovak 11y ago
Keep in mind also that I think he has access to more documents than we have. He made this statement a while back[1]: I am reviewing some of the documents Snowden has provided to the Guardian. Because of the delicate nature of this, I cannot comment on what I have seen. [1]http://www.technologyreview.com/news/519336/bruce-schneier-nsa-spying-is-making-us-less-safe/ http://www.technologyreview.com/news/519336/bruce-schneier-n...

tptacek 11y ago

For whatever it's worth: I do not believe --- and this is an opinion I think is shared by lots of people in my field --- that Scheier has any special insight into the software and network exploitation capabilities of NSA. Schneier is a writer first, then a policy guy next, then an academic/standards-group cryptographer. Information security is a huge field with lots of subfields, and nobody specializes in all of them. My take on this post on his blog is that it's probably a stretch for him to be analyzing the Hacking Team story in any depth.

nitrogen 11y ago
Didn't Schneier have access to the Snowden docs, though?