NSA Turns To Commercial Software For Encryption

Roland Piquepaille writes "According to eWEEK, the National Security Agency (NSA) has picked a commercial solution for its encryption technology needs, instead on relying on its own proprietary code. "The National Security Agency has purchased a license for Certicom Corp.'s elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) system, and plans to make the technology a standard means of securing classified communications. In the case of the NSA deal, the agency wanted to use a 512-bit key for the ECC system. This is the equivalent of an RSA key of 15,360 bits." This summary includes the NIST guidelines for public key sizes and contains more details and links about the ECC technology. Since the announcement, Canadian Press reports that Certicom's shares more than doubled in Toronto."

FUD

[ChozCunningham]

Shouldn't we demand an open source solution? ;)

Re:Canadian code?

[Timesprout]

Its pretty obvious. The strange pronunciation required for Canadian variables makes the code more difficult to comprehend and so creates an additional level of obfuscation and thus greater security.

Re:FINALLY ...

[EvilSS]

Yea, it's really bizarre. You would think there was some kind of draconian regulations on cryptography in the US that encourages companies that develop crypto to not reside here. hrm....

Damn!

[MMC Monster]

I guess rot-13 just isn't good enough anymore. (Am I the only one to think "Wow, how the mighty have fallen!" when I read this?)

Re: Privatization

[Black Parrot]

> The NSA's job is to make secure codes for government use, and break other people's codes. So they licensed someone else's code, but why are they announcing it for intra-government use? The obvious question is, Can't they roll their own?

Probably just means that they've discovered how to crack it, so now they want everyone else to use it.

Re:Great

[kfg]

"I, for one, welcome our new elliptic overlords."

Indeed, this will be a major improvement on the hyperbolic overlords we now have.

KFG

let it be said

[mcryptic]

15,360 bits ought to be enough for everyone.

Re:Buy Canadian

[Anonymous Coward]

I am a citizen of the USA, and I hope that this trend continues.

Indeed, we Canadians hope you continue to be a US citizen.

Re:This is for the more discerning crypto customer

[Threni]

>ECC is the new algorithm to study, because if it's >NSA endorsed it's "probably" years ahead of the >public domain state of the art, and is "probably"
>resistant to some pretty sophisticated crypto
>analysis techniques.

You FOOL! That's exactly what they WANT you to think!