Distrustful U.S. allies force spy agency to back down in encryption fight

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org>
> Date: September 21, 2017 at 7:43:55 AM EDT
> To: Infowarrior List <infowarrior () attrition org>
> Cc: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Distrustful U.S. allies force spy agency to back down in encryption fight
>
>
> September 21, 2017 / 5:03 AM / Updated 5 minutes ago
> Distrustful U.S. allies force spy agency to back down in encryption fight
>
> Joseph Menn
> 8 Min Read
>
> SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An international group of cryptography experts has forced the U.S. National Security Agency 
> to back down over two data encryption techniques it wanted set as global industry standards, reflecting deep mistrust 
> among close U.S. allies.
>
> In interviews and emails seen by Reuters, academic and industry experts from countries including Germany, Japan and 
> Israel worried that the U.S. electronic spy agency was pushing the new techniques not because they were good 
> encryption tools, but because it knew how to break them.
>
> The NSA has now agreed to drop all but the most powerful versions of the techniques - those least likely to be 
> vulnerable to hacks - to address the concerns.
>
> The dispute, which has played out in a series of closed-door meetings around the world over the past three years and 
> has not been previously reported, turns on whether the International Organization of Standards should approve two NSA 
> data encryption techniques, known as Simon and Speck.
>
> The U.S. delegation to the ISO on encryption issues includes a handful of NSA officials, though it is controlled by 
> an American standards body, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
>
> The presence of the NSA officials and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations about the agency’s 
> penetration of global electronic systems have made a number of delegates suspicious of the U.S. delegation’s motives, 
> according to interviews with a dozen current and former delegates.
>
> A number of them voiced their distrust in emails to one another, seen by Reuters, and in written comments that are 
> part of the process. The suspicions stem largely from internal NSA documents disclosed by Snowden that showed the 
> agency had previously plotted to manipulate standards and promote technology it could penetrate. Budget documents, 
> for example, sought funding to “insert vulnerabilities into commercial encryption systems.”
>
> More than a dozen of the experts involved in the approval process for Simon and Speck feared that if the NSA was able 
> to crack the encryption techniques, it would gain a “back door” into coded transmissions, according to the interviews 
> and emails and other documents seen by Reuters.
>
> “I don’t trust the designers,” Israeli delegate Orr Dunkelman, a computer science professor at the University of 
> Haifa, told Reuters, citing Snowden’s papers. “There are quite a lot of people in NSA who think their job is to 
> subvert standards. My job is to secure standards.”
>
> The NSA, which does not confirm the authenticity of any Snowden documents, told Reuters it developed the new 
> encryption tools to protect sensitive U.S. government computer and communications equipment without requiring a lot 
> of computer processing power.
>
> NSA officials said via email they want commercial technology companies that sell to the government to use the 
> techniques, and that is more likely to happen when they have been designated a global standard by the ISO.
>
> Asked if it could beat Simon and Speck encryption, the NSA officials said: “We firmly believe they are secure.”
>
> < - >
>
> http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-standards-insight/distrustful-u-s-allies-force-spy-agency-to-back-down-in-encryption-fight-idUSKCN1BW0GV



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