More Balto Sun on the NSA: Infowar

[pcw@access.digex.net (Peter Wayner)]

The last part of the Baltimore Sun's series of articles on the
NSA arrived today. It concentrated upon the prospect for a
bloodless "Infowar." The article began with a hypothetical
attack beginning on January 17, 2001, the tenth anniversary of
the US bombing of Baghdad. In the attack, bad, computer related
things happen like  stock markets crash and all of the money is
drained from the accounts of the sailors in the US Navy. The
article then uses this as a beginning for a long contemplation
of the NSA's future.

Many of the details are well-known to cypherpunks. The NSA is
poking around with drug interdiction, economic intelligence and
computer security. The Russian linguists are being retrained.
Etc. The article ends with a story told by Senator Rudman of NH.
He says that 100 years ago, the houses were wood and we needed
fire stations on every corner. Now, they're made of brick and
concrete and  come with sprinkler systems. The Fire Union might
argue that you still need a fire station on every corner, he
told the reporter, but that's not necessarily true.

So, perhaps Clipper is a form of job insurance? True perfect
security would not only hurt SIGINT, but it would remove the
need for crypto firemen. If you want to have a system that gives
some people access and not other people, then you need a lot of
folks to stand around, sign forms and generally make sure that
everything is running smoothly. Strong cryptography is
automation. GAK requires a large bureaucracy to administer it.

The article also has some anecdotes about how the agency
protected US firms abroad. One company was alerted that its
European competitor was bribing the Latin American officials who
were choosing the winning bid. Also, when the Peso collapsed,
the US negotiators had access to some information that the
Mexican government wasn't being as forthcoming as they should
have been about the country's assets. They used this information
in negotiations.

--Peter Wayner

You can purchase the complete articles from the Baltimore Sun by
dialing 410-332 6962. The price is $3.95.

(See my second post for more info on an earlier article about Crypto AG).