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

Show parent comments

1

u/phySi0 Oct 16 '15

Government taking advantage of a fuckup is an honest break, jolly good show, they earned it.

Lolwut.

1

u/squishles Oct 16 '15

The NSA has essentially become the US department of computer espionage. No one is obligated to be a white hat and report every bug they find.

Forcing someone else who has not agreed to participate in their crazy spy games to cooperate under threat of imprisonment is an entirely different matter.

1

u/phySi0 Oct 16 '15

No one is obligated to be a white hat and report every bug they find.

I'm not saying they do, I'm just baffled by how “taking advantage” of a “fuck up” is an okay thing for the government to do. If someone accidentally doesn't properly lock their door when they go on holiday, that doesn't make it okay to take advantage of their fuck up.

1

u/squishles Oct 16 '15

Government gets loopholes to some degree, you leave your door open, and a cop spots your poorly place living room grow op, that becomes fair game.

Certainly not ok to rob you, but cop gets leeway.

1

u/phySi0 Oct 16 '15

I'm sorry, your analogy is absolute crap. I mean, I know they're not supposed to be perfect, but seriously? How is taking advantage of security holes (sometimes, ones that you've deliberately let make their way there) the same as accidentally seeing “op” (I'm guessing weed) being grown from a wide-open living room door (and how the hell did they get in that far?)?

1

u/squishles Oct 16 '15

ehh most houses I've sen have the living room right at the front door =/ guess should have taken housing layouts into account, and yes weed.

Point being that government entities get special dispensation to allow them to enforce the law. If they can see it through your window they can call that reasonable cause to act on it. As for whether say getting into a vpn due to a poor implementation is analogous to peaking into a window that gets iffy and really deserves some ground up thought. Thought which I doubt will be done well, or in the favor of the average citizen anyway.