BREAKING: NSA paid US-company RSA to bug encryption software

[ReverendDeuce]

The broader implication is that this more or less proves that the ECRNG certified by NIST was, in fact, tampered with by the NSA. It's been long suspected that this was the case, but there was never a smoking gun. This pretty much seals it.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/20/us-usa-security-rsa-idUSBRE9BJ1C220131220

(Reuters) - As a key part of a campaign to embed encryption software that it could crack into widely used computer products, the U.S. National Security Agency arranged a secret $10 million contract with RSA, one of the most influential firms in the computer security industry, Reuters has learned.

Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show that the NSA created and promulgated a flawed formula for generating random numbers to create a "back door" in encryption products, the New York Times reported in September. Reuters later reported that RSA became the most important distributor of that formula by rolling it into a software tool called Bsafe that is used to enhance security in personal computers and many other products.

Undisclosed until now was that RSA received $10 million in a deal that set the NSA formula as the preferred, or default, method for number generation in the BSafe software, according to two sources familiar with the contract. Although that sum might seem paltry, it represented more than a third of the revenue that the relevant division at RSA had taken in during the entire previous year, securities filings show.

This is UNREAL... Every revelation that leaks out just boggles my mind! This is the same RSA that fought Clipper in the 90s. And now they are COMPLICIT!

Unreal... just unreal...

[RC]

1. Do we have any room left in any of our For Profit Prisons?

If not, maybe we need to release a few of the more peaceful pot smokers to make room.
After they court martialing the General, strip him of his rank and set him up in a room with a sliding iron bar door on one end. Then they need to go after Clapper for lying to Congress and then work their way down through the chain of command.

[Ed Suspicious]

2. The NSA acts like a virus or a worm.

[rhett o rick]

3. Rec and thanks for posting. Other NSA news is posted in the Progressive Group

www.democraticunderground.com/126917

[Blue_Tires]

4. Good...I hope to see more proof of corporate collusion in the future...

[FarCenter]

5. RSA was acquired by Security Dynamics, makers of SecurID, in 1993.

The resultant RSA Security was acquired by EMC in 2006.

By 1993 and the Clipper chip affair, RSA was run by Jim Bidzos, and I don't believe that Rivest, Shamir, or Adelman had much, if any, control of the company. RSA was only one of many research organizations that objected to Clipper.

I'm unclear of the roll of RSA and Bidzos in the application of cryptography. On the one hand, RSA did make available development kits and tools. On the other hand, the licensing restrictions and their locking up the IP in patents delayed the widespread application of the technology. I've always wondered whether RSA was not a mechanism for delaying widespread crypto, and was sponsored to that end by the US government.

Cryptographer Adi Shamir Prevented from Attending NSA History Conference
http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/2013/10/shamir/

[WillyT]

6. K & R !!!

[grasswire]

7. Let the light shine

Sweep it all up.

It's looking like a game of Jenga

[blkmusclmachine]

8. Total surveillance, 24/7. Yay, "freedumb."

9/11 was just the appetizer.

[Poll_Blind]

9. Corporate users of compromised algorithm include Symantec, MacAfee, Cicso, IBM and on and on....

From this page. From Web Design News.



pb

[quadrature]

10. recycled news from the Bush era

everybody suspected there was a payoff

[2banon]

17. ^^^THIS^^^^^ eom

[frylock]

11. redbaitersssssss..... come out to play-yayyyyy

[cantbeserious]

12. Big Brother - Thy Name Is NSA

eom

[marmar]

13. Totally Out of F**king Control.

[Coyotl]

14. And why does everyone need encryption, the NSA is the biggest reason, it seems.

[johnnyreb]

15. "Bsafe!" a HAHAhHaHAHAhahahaaaaaa ahhhh....

song:
http://www.freechannel.org/Suspicious.mp3

[Wilms]

16. ^

[progressoid]

18. No, no, no, they're just collecting meta data.

And if you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.

[randome]

19. I believe the NSA has always worked out agreements to enable decryption.

They are, I believe, currently working with Microsoft for much the same thing. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/04/microsoft-gives/

You cannot have 100% secure communications because that opens the door very widely for criminal organizations -including pornographers, human trafficking operations, and, yes, terrorists- to operate with absolutely no fear of detection.

Law enforcement has always worked toward this. Even back in the 90s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Assistance_for_Law_Enforcement_Act

And for anyone who thinks we should have 100% secure communications, be so kind as to tell us how you would stop the organizations I listed above.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

[ReverendDeuce]

21. I'll just leave this here...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

If you want to amend the Constitution to support this sort of thing, advocate for the surveillance state in the public forum, run for office, and get it passed.

[Egalitarian Thug]

20. I'm glad some of this is finally getting out. I hope it isn't to late. n/t