[Cryptography] Sunday Times Snowden Decryption claims

[Phillip Hallam-Baker]

On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 9:27 PM, Jim Windle <jim.windle at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 8:16 PM, Phillip Hallam-Baker <
> phill at hallambaker.com> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 4:43 PM, Ralf Senderek <crypto at senderek.ie>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On Mon, 15 Jun 2015 19:44:55 Phillip Hallam-Baker wrote:
>>>
>>>  NSA can break any encryption.
>>>>
>>> Really?
>>>
>>>  That is just a fact.
>>>>
>>> Based on which evidence?
>>>
>>>  So it is time that we have to admit it and remove all the silly export
>>>> restrictions on encryption algorithms that can be broken because
>>>> everything can.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I'm amazed to read such an assertion on this list at all.
>>
>>
>> Really?
>>
>> When a publication as authoritative and respected as the London Sunday
>> Times states that Russia can break NSA crypto at will, who can gainsay them?
>>
>> The original story was so absurd I thought it more interesting to point
>> out that it actually argues against their objective rather than in favor.
>>
>
> Here's the Times reporter trying to explain the story to CNN, its quite
> comical.
>
>
> http://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2015/06/14/tom-harper-nsa-files-snowden-howell-intv-nr.cnn
>
>>
>>>

Quote: "when you are dealing with the world of intelligence it is
impossible to say anything with certainty"

The scientific term for this is 'bollocks'. Here are some things we can say
are impossible with absolute certainty.

1) Snowden disclosed US plans for a warp drive

2) Snowden disclosed US plans for a teleportation device, replicator or
any other Star Trek type technology.

3) Snowden disclosed plans for a time machine

The idea that the US would use a cipher so weak that the Russians could
break it is only slightly less preposterous. The idea that such an
incompetent agency would then find out about it...
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