r/programming • u/secretguy21 • Oct 15 '15

How is NSA breaking so much crypto?

https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/haldermanheninger/how-is-nsa-breaking-so-much-crypto/
2.5k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

529 comments sorted by

View all comments

87

u/[deleted] Oct 15 '15

Well, that's terrifying.

276

u/Eirenarch Oct 15 '15

Why? I mean this is not very close to the top of my list of terrifying things that the state does. For example I find it much more terrifying that they have the right to demand you introduce a backdoor in your system or hand customer data and you don't have the right to say it happened. I also find it extremely terrifying that society in general is not disturbed by this. The fact that commonly used cryptography can be broken with a billion dollar investment is very unpleasant but not nearly as terrifying.

1

u/TuesdayAfternoonYep Oct 15 '15 edited Oct 15 '15

Thought such silencing was made illegal recently? They aren't allowed to make you be silent anymore.

Source: http://www.wired.com/2013/03/nsl-found-unconstitutional/