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TrueCrypt Site Encodes Warning about NSA Infiltration

posted by LaminatorX on Tuesday June 17 2014, @10:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the Paging-Dan-Brown dept.

Jeremiah Cornelius writes:

In an update to the speculation that TrueCrypt development was officially discontinued as a response to efforts by US intelligence agencies to compromise the project, the TrueCrypt web site seems to contain a secret message warning potential users of NSA interference in the integrity of the software. The apparent message, "Don't use TrueCrypt because it is under the control of the NSA" is read as an acrostic in Latin, contained in the message announcing developer cessation of the project on SouceForge. Two independent analytical exercises, conducted independently, arrive at the same conclusion. User "Badon" at the Live Business Chat message board has a detailed exegesis including screenshots and footnotes.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: I have cross checked this on some Latin specific sites, and the consensus seems to be that it is nonsensical from a perspective of proper Latin grammar and syntax. However, Google Translation does reproduce these results. I can certainly believe that a warning might have been composed using G.T. rather than by consulting a classicist. --ED]

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 17 2014, @11:52AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 17 2014, @11:52AM (#56314)

    Presumably someone has already checked for steg messages in the screenshots. Cos if I wanted to hide a message I'd put one there.

  • (Score: 1) by q.kontinuum on Tuesday June 17 2014, @12:38PM

    by q.kontinuum (532) on Tuesday June 17 2014, @12:38PM (#56327) Journal

    I wouldn't. The reference picture could would have to be publicly available, which would make plausible denial later on difficult. The current warning should be sufficient to make anyone suspicious who really has to rely on a secure encryption, but obviously (proven by comments to this article) leaves enough doubt to debate if it is really a hidden message. And the beauty of it: It's probably risk-free for the author. If he received a gag order, anyone suing him for violating it would by that confirm himself its existence.

    So, if anyone needs to encrypt his porn drive: Go ahead. You are probably save enough. If you want to pull a Snowden... Maybe you want to chose something else (although probably not Bitlocker as well)

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