Full Disclosure mailing list archives
Re: Wiretap or Magic Lantern?
From: Maarten <fulldisc () ultratux org>
Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2004 19:21:47 +0200
On Wednesday 07 April 2004 16:52, Brent Colflesh wrote:
| 2., The terrorsts are not stupid, they use strong encryption and there | is proof that PGP repels NSA. Please disclose this proof.
There can be, of course, no such proof. Had there been, we would've seen people massively upping their respective keysizes from 128 bit to, what? 768 bits, or even substantially bigger still. However, just assuming the best / the worst would certainly suggest that the NSA has access to the utmost advanced technology -including quantum computing in whatever form it is currently feasible- so therefore one cannot make any statements as to whether any communication is safe, or for how long. As always, economics dictate whether a given message will be worth the effort to [try to] decrypt it. In most all cases brute forcing is by far the most expensive one. Torture, equipment-seizing, social engineering and oldskool spying equipment are amongst the most likely ways to get to any plaintext. The NSA has the means and the resources to dedicate millions of CPUs to decrypting one single message, but why would they? There are much cheaper ways to get to the goal. Therefore, it is not really relevant if the NSA can or cannot decrypt a message (given enough effort). It would be another thing if they could routinely decrypt messages. My guess is, if they could, it would be the single most closely guarded secret the NSA has ever possessed; they would make certain it remains a secret at all cost. Maarten -- Linux: Because rebooting is for adding hardware. _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
Current thread:
- Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Feher Tamas (Apr 07)
- Re: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Maarten (Apr 07)
- Re: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Szilveszter Adam (Apr 07)
- Re: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Maarten (Apr 07)
- Re: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Szilveszter Adam (Apr 08)
- Re: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Cael Abal (Apr 07)
- RE: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Brent Colflesh (Apr 07)
- Re: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Maarten (Apr 07)
- RE: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Byron Copeland (Apr 07)
- RE: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Ron DuFresne (Apr 07)
- RE: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Brent Colflesh (Apr 07)
- Re: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Exibar (Apr 07)
- Re: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Maarten (Apr 07)
- Re: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Caraciola (Apr 07)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? James . Cupps (Apr 07)
- Re: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Valdis . Kletnieks (Apr 07)
- Re: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? madsaxon (Apr 07)
- Re: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Valdis . Kletnieks (Apr 07)
- RE: Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Jos Osborne (Apr 07)
- Wiretap or Magic Lantern? Feher Tamas (Apr 07)