5 ms·

Non-US encryption is 'theoretical,' claims CIA chief in backdoor debate

21 points by Jerry2 10y ago

sschueller 10y ago
What prevents foreign nations from using US encryption without the backdoor? It's not like they have a law that would force then to add a backdoor. I can't believe these people are in charge of national security.
- jwtadvice 10y ago
  Many of the backdoors are written into the constants and constructions of the algorithms themselves in undiscoverable ways. Constants that embed groups inside of weaker groups, multivariate systems that under certain transformations leak keying material, asymmetric transformations for which the standards body creators hold private keys, etc. Legal compulsion of companies to keep plaintext is just one backdoor pursued.
  - benchaney 10y ago
    The encryption we currently use doesn't have the types of back doors you describe. Knowing that, how could he claim that they are "theoretical".
rurban 10y ago
This is funny, because for many of the critical cryptowar years, encryption had to be non-US. US developed encryption was forbidden to be exported, so everybody resorted to european encryption. Most of the devs are still european, not US. And about speaking backdoors: Does he know where most of the hardware is manufactured? And most of the devices are designed? Not in the US.
- x5n1 10y ago
  Do you know how much distrust governments have for other governments spying on individual citizens. None. None whatsoever. China does not care if the US is spying on Chinese individuals and the same goes for the US. It cares its corporate secrets are protected, and perhaps when those individuals have access to those. But that's about it.
  - jwtadvice 10y ago
    Operation Aurora was motivated, at least in part, by US government spying on individual Chinese citizens. The US does seem to care about surveillance and spying on its population. In foreign policy and intelligence circles, surveillance of populations is referred to as "strategic listening". It allows nations to measure the effects of their propaganda on internal political movements of target countries. In the DoD, these same databases are also used in pilot programmes (MINERVA, etc) to study how propaganda can be used to stabilize and destabilize populations. It's likely the Chinese have similar research. Furthermore, many of the individuals surveilled evolve roles of significance. During the US operation to create mass protest in Cuba (Zunzuneo) by setting up fake online social media companies, they gathered huge amounts of information on the individual citizens they were trying to radicalize. The reason for this was because these individuals, if successful in overthrowing or altering the political structure in Cuba, become interesting targets in their own right - and now intelligence and profiling work on these new power brokers is partially complete. We can see that China had hacked the US security clearance databases. This not only contains lists of people with access to critical systems and information - but also has compiled risks of leverage those individuals may face from adversaries (debt, extramarital engagement, etc).
kafkaesq 10y ago
Which brings up that immortal saying: "With friends like these, who needs enemies?"
ex3ndr 10y ago
In Actor we mix Non-US (Russian) and US crypto in a secure manner. So if even Non-US crypto will be weak we will have US layer for protection. If CIA will break US crypto they will still need to crack Non-US and when this will happen this will be exposed to the public somehow.

21 points by Jerry2 10y ago

What prevents foreign nations from using US encryption without the backdoor? It's not like they have a law that would force then to add a backdoor. I can't believe these people are in charge of national security.

jwtadvice 10y ago
Many of the backdoors are written into the constants and constructions of the algorithms themselves in undiscoverable ways. Constants that embed groups inside of weaker groups, multivariate systems that under certain transformations leak keying material, asymmetric transformations for which the standards body creators hold private keys, etc. Legal compulsion of companies to keep plaintext is just one backdoor pursued.
- benchaney 10y ago
  The encryption we currently use doesn't have the types of back doors you describe. Knowing that, how could he claim that they are "theoretical".

rurban 10y ago

This is funny, because for many of the critical cryptowar years, encryption had to be non-US. US developed encryption was forbidden to be exported, so everybody resorted to european encryption. Most of the devs are still european, not US. And about speaking backdoors: Does he know where most of the hardware is manufactured? And most of the devices are designed? Not in the US.

x5n1 10y ago
Do you know how much distrust governments have for other governments spying on individual citizens. None. None whatsoever. China does not care if the US is spying on Chinese individuals and the same goes for the US. It cares its corporate secrets are protected, and perhaps when those individuals have access to those. But that's about it.
- jwtadvice 10y ago
  Operation Aurora was motivated, at least in part, by US government spying on individual Chinese citizens. The US does seem to care about surveillance and spying on its population. In foreign policy and intelligence circles, surveillance of populations is referred to as "strategic listening". It allows nations to measure the effects of their propaganda on internal political movements of target countries. In the DoD, these same databases are also used in pilot programmes (MINERVA, etc) to study how propaganda can be used to stabilize and destabilize populations. It's likely the Chinese have similar research. Furthermore, many of the individuals surveilled evolve roles of significance. During the US operation to create mass protest in Cuba (Zunzuneo) by setting up fake online social media companies, they gathered huge amounts of information on the individual citizens they were trying to radicalize. The reason for this was because these individuals, if successful in overthrowing or altering the political structure in Cuba, become interesting targets in their own right - and now intelligence and profiling work on these new power brokers is partially complete. We can see that China had hacked the US security clearance databases. This not only contains lists of people with access to critical systems and information - but also has compiled risks of leverage those individuals may face from adversaries (debt, extramarital engagement, etc).

kafkaesq 10y ago

Which brings up that immortal saying: "With friends like these, who needs enemies?"

ex3ndr 10y ago

In Actor we mix Non-US (Russian) and US crypto in a secure manner. So if even Non-US crypto will be weak we will have US layer for protection. If CIA will break US crypto they will still need to crack Non-US and when this will happen this will be exposed to the public somehow.