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I can see 3 possible scenarios here. 1. Russia/China have got hold of the files, and know how to decrypt PGP (Very unlikely). 2. A journalist with access to t
by scotchmi_st 11y ago
I can see 3 possible scenarios here.
1. Russia/China have got hold of the files, and know how to decrypt PGP (Very unlikely).
2. A journalist with access to the files and the encryption keys has left them lying around, or was cooerced into decrypting them. (Unlikely but possible).
3. Intelligence services are lying, possibly for political gain ahead of new legislation (specifically in the UK), and/or have fallen for a bluff by China and Russia. (Most likely).
- k-mcgrady 11y agoI know he communicated with the journalists via PGP but do we know that all copies of the files were encrypted that way?
- cyphunk 11y ago4. A version left encrypted at any point and time on some old SSD or NAND cells that were then recovered, without journalist or other handlers aware this could happen. 5. GCHQ or NSA had same or similar documents lifted (umm... leveraging Office of Personnel Management or a similar type hack) and they are preparing a cover story. plenty of conspiracies to go around but as someone else said... until some proof is shown there's no reason to give much weight to the statement that individuals needed to be moved.
- fweespeech 11y agohttp://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/chinese-hack-of-government-network-compromises-security-clearance-files/2015/06/12/9f91f146-1135-11e5-9726-49d6fa26a8c6_story.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/chines... I'd say its #5 honestly :p
- UVB-76 11y agoMore likely is that the Snowden documents have been widely distributed in encrypted form (as one of the Wikileaks insurance releases) and Russia/China have managed to brute force the key.
- scotchmi_st 11y agoThat broadly speaking comes under point 1, and in my opinion, that's very unlikely, given that at the point Snowden stopped contracting for the NSA, PGP was still considered uncrackable by them.
- lawnchair_larry 11y agoThis is least likely.
- ryan-c 11y agoSnowden's passphrase[0] advice is pretty bad - perhaps they came up with a list of phrases based on what they know of him and successfully cracked it. > “The best advice here is to shift your thinking from passWORDs to passPHRASES,” Snowden recommended. “Think about a common phrase that works for you. It’s too long to brute force and also make them unlikely to be in the dictionary.” (emphasis mine) 0. http://rt.com/usa/248401-snowden-oliver-password-protection-advice/ http://rt.com/usa/248401-snowden-oliver-password-protection-...
- programmernews3 11y agoI expect Snowden actually advocates people use something like diceware passphrases and the journalist misunderstood. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diceware https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diceware
- ryan-c 11y agoThat sure isn't what he said to John Oliver. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzGzB-yYKcc#t=1m30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzGzB-yYKcc#t=1m30s He mentioned "margrattethatcheris110%SEXY" - I would be totally unsuprised if someone managed to crack that. Diceware is a great choice.
- anonbanker 11y agoPerhaps you can come up with a reason why this is bad? While I'm asking, perhaps you can come up with a reason that doesn't boil down to "Bruce Schneirer said XKCD method was bad"?
- 6d0debc071 11y agoIs it that unlikely that a journalist left the encryption keys on an internet-facing machine? The protection on an essentially unguarded computer (let's face it, if someone wants to break into any of our home machines, they can) would then be the weakest link.
- nyolfen 11y agopoitras and the intercept are both very well versed in opsec and the necessity for airgapping, and the latter hired Morgan Marquis-Boire to handle security for first look media. i don't think it's as likely as you believe
- jonnybgood 11y agoThe NSA is also well versed in OPSEC, but a guy took a ton of their documents and is currently residing in Russia. There are always holes in the system.
- PhantomGremlin 11y ago2. A journalist with access to the files and the encryption keys It doesn't have to be a "journalist". E.g. I'd consider Bruce Schneier to be more of a cryptographer or researcher. My scenario: 1) He's had extensive access to the Snowden material 2) He uses Windows 3) Q.E.D. Yes he's taken precautions, but he's certainly a "high value target". https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/09/how_to_remain_s.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/09/how_to_remain...