NSA building Quantum Computer Capable of Breaking PGP Encryption.

I assumed they broke it a long time ago :) Don't need a big discrete computer, just use lots of small interconnected ones ala Folding@Home.

It is interesting that the technological ability to build a quantum computer is now with us.

But the irony may become that it propels criminals and terrorists into returning to the unbreakable one time use pad again.
 
NSA seeks to build quantum computer that could crack most types of encryption - The Washington Post

But if anyone wants to know how to encrypt things so that even that computer cant break it, let me know, lol.

You can actually run your own internet. Just share a cat 5 cable with your neighbors and no one else will be on your internet.

Well, that is one approach, I guess, but the NSA can use an induction coil to read the signals without cutting in if they wanted to. The cable shielding doesn't stop 100% of the electro magnetic field interaction. And it wouldn't help if you wanted to send messages over seas.

One time use pads are coming back, lol.
 
Don't count on it. The problem with government projects is that they are built by drones who couldn't care less. It's OK when they build solid structures and follow blueprints but by the time they build an extremely complex electronic gizmo some kid will have hacked it from his garage.
 
Don't count on it. The problem with government projects is that they are built by drones who couldn't care less. It's OK when they build solid structures and follow blueprints but by the time they build an extremely complex electronic gizmo some kid will have hacked it from his garage.

That is generally true, but when it comes to black box projects, the government will find experts with solid track records of accomplishment and they will hire the best to get it done.

Once it has been established tech for a while, then they will emplace their ideological litmus tests, hiring quotas, etc.
 
I assumed they broke it a long time ago :) Don't need a big discrete computer, just use lots of small interconnected ones ala Folding@Home.

It is interesting that the technological ability to build a quantum computer is now with us.

But the irony may become that it propels criminals and terrorists into returning to the unbreakable one time use pad again.

For some time now in fact. First application (publicly disclosed anyway) of quantum mechanics was quantum cryptography.
 
The FBI-Apple iPhone encryption case goes on...

Justice Department still needs Apple's help unlocking Brooklyn iPhone
April 8, 2016 -- Even though federal investigators were able to unlock the iPhone used by shooters in the San Bernardino, Calif., massacre, the Justice Department is still seeking help from Apple to read data on a phone involved in an ongoing case in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Justice Department on Friday submitted a letter to a judge in New York again pressing its case against Apple in a 2014 drug investigation. Judge James Orenstein previously ruled the government lacks the power to compel Apple to write software to open the phone. The Justice Department is now seeking a higher judge to review the matter. In his ruling in February, Orenstein said federal prosecutors overstepped the authority given it in the All Writs Act, a law written in 1789. Jun Feng, the defendant who used the phone, pleaded guilty but both sides agreed a resolution to the legal dispute involving the phone is needed.


The Brooklyn case has received relatively little attention, overshadowed by the fight over the locked cellphone of Syed Farook, the alleged gunman in San Bernardino. Investigators said they were stalled by their inability to proceed past the phone's security passcode. The Justice Department sought a court order forcing Apple to write software for opening the phone, but quickly dropped its legal battle after an unidentified third party offered the FBI a method of opening the phone.

Apple contended that acquiescing to a government demand to open a cellphone would create future issues regarding security and privacy. FBI Director James Comey said Thursday his agency purchased "a tool" to open Farook's phone, an Apple iPhone 5C, and successfully entered Farook's phone, but added the solution does not work on more advanced smartphones such as the Apple iPhone 5s, or iPhone 6 models.

Justice Department still needs Apple's help unlocking Brooklyn iPhone

See also:

U.S. to continue appeal of iPhone data case in New York
Fri Apr 8, 2016 - The U.S. Justice Department on Friday said it would keep fighting to force Apple Inc to open an iPhone in a New York drug case, continuing its controversial effort to require Apple and other tech companies to help law enforcement authorities circumvent encryption.
Just two weeks ago, the government dropped its effort to require Apple to crack an iPhone used by one of the shooters in the December attacks in San Bernardino, California, saying it had unlocked the phone without Apple's help. Some observers thought the government would back away from the New York case too, since the suspect has already pleaded guilty. But in a letter filed in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, the Justice Department said, "The government continues to require Apple's assistance in accessing the data that it is authorized to search by warrant."

r

An Apple attorney said Friday the company was disappointed but not surprised that the government would continue to fight in New York after giving up in California. He said the appeal belied the FBI's claim that the San Bernardino case was about a single phone and the need to stop future terror acts. Apple, with the strong support of most of the technology industry, argues that requiring it to circumvent the encryption in its own products would inevitability open the door for hackers and foreign spies and undermine security for everyone. The company has said it is willing to take the issue to the Supreme Court.

The phones in the two cases have different security features, with the New York phone running an earlier version of the iPhone operating software. The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey, who is leading the battle against Apple, said Thursday that the method used on the San Bernardino phone would not work on other models.

MORE

Related:

U.S. judge in Boston ordered Apple to help law enforcement examine iPhone
Fri Apr 8, 2016 A U.S. magistrate judge in Boston in February ordered Apple Inc to assist law enforcement officers in examining the iPhone of an alleged gang member, according to a court filing unsealed on Friday.
"Reasonable technical assistance consists of, to the extent possible, extracting data from the device, copying the data from the device onto an external hard drive or other storage medium and returning the aforementioned storage medium to law enforcement," U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler wrote.

r

A worker checks an iPhone in a repair store in New York​

Apple has been under pressure in recent months to assist law enforcement agencies in searching its iPhones after the U.S. Justice Department sought access to a phone used by a gunman who fatally shot 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December. The FBI has since said it has figured out a secret method for unlocking iPhones.

Apple objected to the Boston order on the same grounds as it did in the San Bernardino case, an Apple employee briefed on the matter said, and the government did not pursue the matter in this case.

U.S. judge in Boston ordered Apple to help law enforcement examine iPhone
 
Granny says, "Dat's right - criminals an' terrorists gettin' the upper hand with encryption...
icon_grandma.gif

US Officials: Cellphone Encryption Thwarting Criminal Investigations
April 19, 2016 - U.S. law enforcement officials say they are being thwarted in solving dozens of criminal cases because they cannot access incriminating information that suspects have stored in encrypted files on their cellphones equipped with the latest technology.
New York City Police chief of intelligence Thomas Galati told the House of Representatives investigations panel Tuesday his officers "have the legal right to open [information in suspects' phones], but not the technical expertise." He said police once relied on wiretaps to listen to suspects plotting crimes, but "now we are likely in the dark." The debate about whether protecting the public's right to privacy is more important than the need by authorities to halt terrorist activity and everyday crimes has taken on a new urgency in the United States, as Apple and other technology companies sell devices with tough-to-crack encrypted features.

During the congressional hearing, one Federal Bureau of Investigation official, Amy Hess, said encryption "renders suspects virtually anonymous on the Internet." She said investigators at the FBI, the country's top law enforcement agency, are seeing criminals "urging others to move to encrypted devices." The issue has figured prominently in the investigation of Syed Rizwan Farook, an American-born Muslim, who with his Pakistani--born wife, Tashfeen Malik, shot 14 people to death at a local government center in San Bernardino, California, last December. Authorities say it was an attack inspired by overseas terrorists.

4828784D-08F6-4F9E-B55A-768B3C048209_w640_r1_s.jpg

From left: FBI Executive Assistant Director for Science and Technology Amy Hess, New York From left: FBI Executive Assistant Director for Science and Technology Amy Hess, New York City Police Department Intelligence Bureau Chief Thomas Galati and Indiana State Police, Office of Intelligence and Investigative Technologies Commander Capt. Charles Cohen, testify on Capitol Hill​

The FBI sued to force Apple to develop software to crack into Farook's iPhone, but the technology giant refused, saying it would endanger the security of the phones for millions of its customers. The FBI abruptly dropped the lawsuit and paid hackers to break into Farook's phone, although it is not known what information was stored on it The chairman of the House panel, Republican Tim Murphy, said encryption has given criminals "a cloak of invisibility. It's pretty frightening."

A police intelligence official in the midwestern state of Indiana, Charles Cohen, said Apple has developed cellphones "without a key." He added that some suspects remain free because possibly incriminating evidence on their cellphones is "completely out of reach" for police. The lawmakers listening to the complaints about the information being hidden on encrypted devices said they want to devise some middle ground policy on access to the information, protecting privacy rights while also allowing law enforcement officials access to incriminating evidence they need to arrest and convict criminals and terrorists.

US Officials: Cellphone Encryption Thwarting Criminal Investigations
 
No Google backup, full disc encryption with alpha-numeric pin, root access, and the occasional porn. I'm good.
 

New Topics

Forum List

Back
Top