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How to Sabotage Encryption Software (And Not Get Caught).

posted by janrinok on Saturday February 28 2015, @09:55PM   
from the ssshh-'they'-will-hear-you dept.

AnonTechie writes:

In the field of cryptography, a secretly planted “backdoor” that allows eavesdropping on communications is usually a subject of paranoia and dread. But that doesn’t mean cryptographers don’t appreciate the art of skilled cyphersabotage. Now one group of crypto experts has published an appraisal of different methods of weakening crypto systems, and the lesson is that some backdoors are clearly better than others—in stealth, deniability, and even in protecting the victims’ privacy from spies other than the backdoor’s creator.

In a paper titled “Surreptitiously Weakening Cryptographic Systems,” well-known cryptographer and author Bruce Schneier and researchers from the Universities of Wisconsin and Washington take the spy’s view to the problem of crypto design: What kind of built-in backdoor surveillance works best ?

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/sabotage-encryption-software-get-caught/

[Paper]: http://www.scribd.com/doc/257059894/Surreptitiously-Weakening-Cryptographic-Systems

• Re:Just be assertive. Re:Just be assertive. (Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Saturday February 28 2015, @10:39PM

  by c0lo (156) on Saturday February 28 2015, @10:39PM (#151254) Journal

  Maybe you'd like to think so but no: no matter the personalities involved, maths simply doesn't work on assertiveness.

  Simply because is just a pure intellectual construct (as such, not a science, as it lacks the experimental validation requirements), it does not allow any room for casting doubts - either you demonstrate or you are nowhere no matter how big is your mouth [wikipedia.org].
  (no better area where "You can't fool everyone all the time" applies)

  --
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0

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• Re:Just be assertive. Re:Just be assertive. (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 01 2015, @12:28AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 01 2015, @12:28AM (#151312)

  The interpretation of mathematics by humans is in fact highly affected by the personalities involved. It's this interpretation that matters the most in practice.

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  • Re:Just be assertive. (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 01 2015, @12:39AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 01 2015, @12:39AM (#151323)

    I tend to let interpretation to the artists (like actors and singers).

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• Re:Just be assertive. (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 01 2015, @11:01AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 01 2015, @11:01AM (#151485)

  The scientific method makes no requirements about the physical representation of the subject being studied.

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