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The documents says they are "...investing in groundbreaking cryptanalytic capabilities to defeat adversarial cryptography and exploit internet traffic." Not tha
by moxie 13y ago
The documents says they are "...investing in groundbreaking cryptanalytic capabilities to defeat adversarial cryptography and exploit internet traffic." Not that they have achieved groundbreaking cryptanalytic capabilities.
It's common for people to suggest that the NSA is 20 years ahead of the private sector, but it's not clear how true this is. That number is commonly cited as a result of changes the NSA made to DES, which later suggested (and Don Coppersmith openly confirmed) they knew about differential cryptanalysis 20 years before Shamir published anything about it.
However, that was long before cryptography became as popular a research topic outside of government circles. There are now many other places to go to do that type of research, and based on the public payscale data available, almost all of them pay better than the NSA. Recent developments, such as their Dual Counter Mode proposal in 2001, suggest that they might not be as far ahead as they once were.
- ktsmith 13y ago> "...investing in groundbreaking cryptanalytic capabilities to defeat adversarial cryptography and exploit internet traffic." This could be little more than a way of making the purchase of a bunch of D-Wave boxes sound more compelling than it might really be at this time. The problem with secret organizations with no oversight is that we'll probably never know for sure.
- marshray 13y agoSounds like a natural fit for quantum.
- nly 13y agoIt seems unlikely that a document produced to justify funding would ever offer up anything which could give anyone a moments pause before the nodding gesture sought. After all, it would be fairly damning if the NSA were defending a high crypto budget by filling the document with hyperbole, just as it would be a trifle suspicious if they suddenly cut the department to a couple of well fed nerds and a years supply of sharp pencils and Mountain Dew. The meagre sentences in this document seem to sit in the bureaucratic sweet spot of positive but vague.