5 ms·

I had a secret clearance in the Army 25 years ago, and the sexiest secret I ever learned was a number...which was the obvious product (like literally x*y) of tw

by 13of40 5y ago

I had a secret clearance in the Army 25 years ago, and the sexiest secret I ever learned was a number...which was the obvious product (like literally x*y) of two unclassified numbers.

vlovich123 5y ago
If x and y were primes then your secret was probably quite valuable at that time. 25 years ago is about the right time for RSA encryption to still be state of the art at the NSA and whatnot. The reason this is valuable is that you can multiply the two numbers quickly, but figuring out the two numbers knowing only the product is extremely hard (mathematically/computationally). When x and y are large primes, then the division takes a long time (decades depending on the size of the number). Is it possible that you actually learned some important private cryptographic key? If so, that number might have been sexy but you just didn’t actually have visibility into a bigger picture?
- Thorrez 5y ago
  If x and y are unclassified then it would be a pretty bad idea to use x*y as a key.
  - killingtime74 5y ago
    Don't all classified datums have to have unclassified components?
    - Pokepokalypse 5y ago
      Or what you mean to say; a bit of controlled information, may only be classified by virtue of its context.
    - Thorrez 5y ago
      Sure, I guess you could say that a 500-digit number has 500 unclassified components. It makes sense that each of the digits have been written somewhere publicly. But where would the x or y have ever been written publicly?
- 13of40 5y ago
  > Is it possible that you actually learned some important private cryptographic key No, it was more like "this chainsaw cuts through 3 inches of wood per second and it falls apart in half a minute, so the amount of wood you can cut with it is [REDACTED]"
  - geoduck14 5y ago
    >> Is it possible that you actually learned some important private cryptographic key No, it was more like "this chainsaw cuts through 3 inches of wood per second and it falls apart in half a minute, so the amount of wood you can cut with it is [REDACTED]" That actually sounds like a pretty secure password.
kryogen1c 5y ago
it depends. theres not a lot of granularity in the classification system and the government is loathe to declassify old stuff. thats why s\c\i is the best clearance marking i know of and basically means "dont tell anyone even if they have a clearance" a lot of nuclear navy info is decades old and shares the same classification level of new, novel tech. suffice it to say submarines are doing cool things and i certainly dont know the half of it.
cafard 5y ago
I had a secret clearance when working for a government contractor at a civil agency. I don't remember anything particularly sensitive ever coming to my attention. Secret clearances are not hard to come by, or anyway were not back then.
- 13of40 5y ago
  They definitely taught us secrets. They had a faraday cage in one of the armored vehicle garages just for that purpose. I was just agreeing with the parent that the secrets were all totally random and mundane. Like if you take a two month auto repair course and when it comes time to set the gap on some spark plugs they herd you into the faraday cage to tell you what setting to use.
  - SyzygistSix 5y ago
    >when it comes time to set the gap on some spark plugs they herd you into the faraday cage to tell you what setting to use. Is this serious?
Pokepokalypse 5y ago
I had a secret clearance, and it was used for setting up an application to print pages with a classified banner. Once that page was printed, it was technically classified material. As you know; generation, and possession, and destruction of that material (even if an otherwise blank sheet of paper) - is controlled and documented. In IT projects, most of us with any kind of clearance NEVER see anything controlled. But the clearance is needed in case we ever need to see controlled information, in order to write code, debug it, operate it, or train others to use the system. Though some may eventually end up on a system or program whose very existence is classified. And that fact alone, is often not very special, and may be the only thing they ever "know" that's controlled.

by 13of40 5y ago

I had a secret clearance in the Army 25 years ago, and the sexiest secret I ever learned was a number...which was the obvious product (like literally x*y) of two unclassified numbers.

vlovich123 5y ago

If x and y were primes then your secret was probably quite valuable at that time. 25 years ago is about the right time for RSA encryption to still be state of the art at the NSA and whatnot. The reason this is valuable is that you can multiply the two numbers quickly, but figuring out the two numbers knowing only the product is extremely hard (mathematically/computationally). When x and y are large primes, then the division takes a long time (decades depending on the size of the number). Is it possible that you actually learned some important private cryptographic key? If so, that number might have been sexy but you just didn’t actually have visibility into a bigger picture?

Thorrez 5y ago
If x and y are unclassified then it would be a pretty bad idea to use x*y as a key.
- killingtime74 5y ago
  Don't all classified datums have to have unclassified components?
  - Pokepokalypse 5y ago
    Or what you mean to say; a bit of controlled information, may only be classified by virtue of its context.
  - Thorrez 5y ago
    Sure, I guess you could say that a 500-digit number has 500 unclassified components. It makes sense that each of the digits have been written somewhere publicly. But where would the x or y have ever been written publicly?
13of40 5y ago
> Is it possible that you actually learned some important private cryptographic key No, it was more like "this chainsaw cuts through 3 inches of wood per second and it falls apart in half a minute, so the amount of wood you can cut with it is [REDACTED]"
- geoduck14 5y ago
  >> Is it possible that you actually learned some important private cryptographic key No, it was more like "this chainsaw cuts through 3 inches of wood per second and it falls apart in half a minute, so the amount of wood you can cut with it is [REDACTED]" That actually sounds like a pretty secure password.

kryogen1c 5y ago

it depends. theres not a lot of granularity in the classification system and the government is loathe to declassify old stuff. thats why s\c\i is the best clearance marking i know of and basically means "dont tell anyone even if they have a clearance" a lot of nuclear navy info is decades old and shares the same classification level of new, novel tech. suffice it to say submarines are doing cool things and i certainly dont know the half of it.

cafard 5y ago

I had a secret clearance when working for a government contractor at a civil agency. I don't remember anything particularly sensitive ever coming to my attention. Secret clearances are not hard to come by, or anyway were not back then.

13of40 5y ago
They definitely taught us secrets. They had a faraday cage in one of the armored vehicle garages just for that purpose. I was just agreeing with the parent that the secrets were all totally random and mundane. Like if you take a two month auto repair course and when it comes time to set the gap on some spark plugs they herd you into the faraday cage to tell you what setting to use.
- SyzygistSix 5y ago
  >when it comes time to set the gap on some spark plugs they herd you into the faraday cage to tell you what setting to use. Is this serious?

Pokepokalypse 5y ago

I had a secret clearance, and it was used for setting up an application to print pages with a classified banner. Once that page was printed, it was technically classified material. As you know; generation, and possession, and destruction of that material (even if an otherwise blank sheet of paper) - is controlled and documented. In IT projects, most of us with any kind of clearance NEVER see anything controlled. But the clearance is needed in case we ever need to see controlled information, in order to write code, debug it, operate it, or train others to use the system. Though some may eventually end up on a system or program whose very existence is classified. And that fact alone, is often not very special, and may be the only thing they ever "know" that's controlled.