Re: (N)ever (S)ay (A)nything - Any ideas ??

From: Colin Percival (cperciva_at_sfu.ca)
Date: 06/28/05 

Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 01:43:55 +0000 (UTC)

Galathas <galathas@centrum.cz> wrote:
> what are Your ideas about NSA development nowadays ??

Side channel attacks. Two decades ago, they were "encouraging" people to
not investigate the possibility of information leakage via memory access
patterns; we know that they have a large investment in power consumption
and electromagnetic ("TEMPEST") side-channels; and the US export
requirements for cryptographic code are exactly what one would expect if
the intention was to simplify side-channel attacks ("show us your code,
so that when we see a signal we can work out exactly where it is coming
from").

Of course, they're also doing things like operating system development
for the benefit of other government departments, and all sorts of signal
interception... but I'm fairly confident that their major cryptographic
focus is side channel attacks.

Colin Percival