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> The US and the UK had broken Enigma but had kept this fact secret so that countries would use these broken ciphers. Does this even count as a 'backdoor'? As
by bmelton 13y ago
> The US and the UK had broken Enigma but had kept this fact secret so that countries would use these broken ciphers.
Does this even count as a 'backdoor'? As much fault as I find with NSA's actions, I think of backdoors as the most malicious form of tradecraft. To me, a backdoor is something that has been specifically designed to allow the NSA, and likely only the NSA, entry, despite it being otherwise secure.
I'm not a crypto guy, so perhaps I'm just looking at this naively, but I think 'broken' and 'backdoor' are two entirely different classes of things.
- EthanHeilman 13y agoIf you sell someone a cipher you can break but you don't tell them that you have that capability I would classify that as a backdoor. If you break the cipher after you sold it to them that might not be a backdoor.
- bmelton 13y agoBut (at least as I understand it) they were being sold out of Germany, and not by either the UK or US.
- icegreentea 13y agoRead the footnote. Copied here: "The British government insisted upon this silence because it has given the thousands of Enigma machines that it had gathered up after the end of the war to its former colonies as they gained independence and needed secure systems of communication." p 979 The Codebreakers by David Kahn ↩
- bmelton 13y agoThat does indeed settle the matter. Thanks for the clarification.
- EthanHeilman 13y agoI've updated my post to clarify this point, thanks.