Re: (fwd) Re: NSA Helped Yeltsin Foil 1991 Coup

[Eli Brandt <ebrandt@jarthur.cs.hmc.edu>]

> From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com>
> If the story is true, it means that the NSA can break some classes
> of conventional cryptosystems very fast -- fast enough to be of use
> in this case, for instance.

It's also possible that they're not doing a direct cryptanalytic
attack.  They might be using technical or human means to compromise
the key distribution, for example, or they might just have bugged
somebody's phone.  But, yeah, the bottom line is that they were able
to read Russian military communications, which is a substantial
achievement.

> We are all very dependent on things like MD5 and IDEA, which may or
> may not actually be secure. We should bear this in mind.

The lack of decent theoretical underpinnings for most cryptosystems
is rather worrisome.

   Eli   ebrandt@hmc.edu