[Infowarrior] - DerSpiegel: Inside the NSA's War on Internet Security

[Richard Forno]

12/28/2014 08:01 PM

Prying Eyes

Inside the NSA's War on Internet Security

By SPIEGEL Staff

US and British intelligence agencies undertake every effort imaginable to crack all types of encrypted Internet communication. The cloud, it seems, is full of holes. The good news: New Snowden documents show that some forms of encryption still cause problems for the NSA.

When Christmas approaches, the spies of the Five Eyes intelligence services can look forward to a break from the arduous daily work of spying. In addition to their usual job -- attempting to crack encryption all around the world -- they play a game called the "Kryptos Kristmas Kwiz," which involves solving challenging numerical and alphabetical puzzles. The proud winners of the competition are awarded "Kryptos" mugs.

Encryption -- the use of mathematics to protect communications from spying -- is used for electronic transactions of all types, by governments, firms and private users alike. But a look into the archive of whistleblower Edward Snowden shows that not all encryption technologies live up to what they promise.

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http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/inside-the-nsa-s-war-on-internet-security-a-1010361-druck.html

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