4 ms·
> The system, called Dual Elliptic Curve, was a random number generator, but it had a deliberate flaw - or "back door" - that allowed the NSA to crack the encry
by linuxhansl 13y ago
> The system, called Dual Elliptic Curve, was a random number generator, but it had a deliberate flaw - or "back door" - that allowed the NSA to crack the encryption
I would very clearly draw the line at the point where the NSA is deliberately weakening national security by undermining widely used cryptography. Companies or even other government agencies are now easier targets because of the doings of the NSA.
- mpyne 13y ago> I would very clearly draw the line at the point where the NSA is deliberately weakening national security by undermining widely used cryptography There was no "threat to national security" here. Unlike what we think of as a normal backdoor, this one is and remains completely in NSA's control, as long as they're the only ones with the private key underlying the Dual EC constants. So even knowing there's a backdoor in there somewhere, there's no way for other security agencies or hackers to break Dual EC (assuming, of course, that it's properly implemented, which is not a given, and NSA's changes may have made it harder to implement).