Encryption software unlocked by NSA
Print Edition
The United States’ National Security Agency, working with the British government, has secretly been unraveling encryption technology that billions of Internet users rely upon to keep their electronic messages and confidential data safe from prying eyes, according to published reports based on internal US government documents.
The NSA has bypassed or cracked much of the digital encryption used by businesses and everyday web users, according to reports on Thursday in The New York Times, Britain’s Guardian newspaper and the nonprofit news website ProPublica.
The reports describe how the NSA has invested billions of dollars since 2000 to make nearly everyone’s secrets available for government consumption.
In doing so, the NSA built powerful supercomputers to break encryption codes and partnered with unnamed technology companies to insert “back doors” into their software, the reports said. Such a practice would give access to digital information before it was encrypted.
“For the past decade, NSA has led an aggressive, multi-pronged effort to break widely used Internet encryption technologies,” according to a 2010 briefing document about the NSA’s accomplishments meant for its UK counterpart, Government Communications Headquarters.
Security experts said such a code-breaking practice would ultimately undermine Internet security.
The revelations stem from documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who sought asylum in Russia this summer.
Thursday’s reports said some of the NSA’s “most intensive efforts” focused on Secure Sockets Layer, widely used by online retailers and corporate networks.
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