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The NSA is a schizophrenic organization. It is tasked with two opposing goals: - To eavesdrop on the communications of foreign entities. - To protect our own
by hobb0001 13y ago
The NSA is a schizophrenic organization. It is tasked with two opposing goals:
- To eavesdrop on the communications of foreign entities.
- To protect our own government from foreign entities that are doing the same.
It is the latter directive that has provided SELinux and AES.
- meepmorp 13y agoThere's nothing at all opposing about those goals. They're both natural by products of expertise in signals intelligence and cryptanalysis, and skill breaking security helps provide more secure systems by subjecting them to more sophisticated attacks.
- hobb0001 13y agoTrue enough. It has only become schizophrenic lately because it is now eavesdropping on domestic communication as well.
- atonse 13y agoJust as a clarification, NSA doesn't set those standards. Agencies like NIST set AES and SHA3 through open worldwide competitions. These standards then become parts of larger compliance guidelines like FIPS (Federal Information Protection Standard I think) that govern how the USG should protect its data.
- tptacek 13y agoNIST has like 2 cryptographers, doesn't it? The real guidance at NIST comes from NSA. If you think NSA is backdooring Suite B crypto, you can't trust NIST.