Brute force is only required if there isn't a vulnerability (either in the algorithm or that the NSA has a key). > Classified N.S.A. memos appear to confirm th

Brute force is only required if there isn't a vulnerability (either in the algorithm or that the NSA has a key). > Classified N.S.A. memos appear to confirm that the fatal weakness, discovered by two Microsoft cryptographers in 2007, was engineered by the agency. The N.S.A. wrote the standard and aggressively pushed it on the international group, privately calling the effort “a challenge in finesse.” > N.S.A. documents show that the agency maintains an internal database of encryption keys for specific commercial products, called a Key Provisioning Service, which can automatically decode many messages. If the necessary key is not in the collection, a request goes to the separate Key Recovery Service, which tries to obtain it.