General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis is for the naysayers who believe the NSA is incapable of breaking their $99.95 encryption
Hey, its far too complicated for the NSA to crack, right?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23627656
"Snowden link to encrypted email service closes
Edward Snowden is believed to have been using the Lavabit service after fleeing the US
Continue reading the main story
US spy leaks
"Two encrypted email services have closed down for reasons linked to US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.
Texas-based Lavabit service has shut down but said legal reasons prevented it explaining why.
Correspondents say Lavabit appears to have been in a legal battle to stop US officials accessing customer details.
In addition, secure communications firm Silent Circle has shut its email service because messages cannot be kept wholly secret."
More at link ...
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)If they have the server, they would very likely have access to the encryption key.
EOTE
(13,409 posts)No encryption is worth anything if the encryption key is known. But breaking AES-256 without an encryption key is pretty much impossible, even I'd imagine, with the NSA's crazy hardware.
ProdigalJunkMail
(12,017 posts)AES256 allows for 1.1X10^77 permutations. With a computer operating at 10 pFLOPS it would take 3.3X10^56 years to explore all the combinations. That's to break ONE key...
sP
EOTE
(13,409 posts)The numbers are staggering. Reminds me of the wheat and chessboard problem, only without the adding, and a chessboard only has 64 squares. AES 256 has 2^192 times the combinations as grains of wheat on that final square (which is something like 9 quintillion grains).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_and_chessboard_problem
ProdigalJunkMail
(12,017 posts)had to look up my numbers 'cause I wasn't going to do it again!
sP
Autumn
(45,072 posts)the NSA. Might save the government a few bucks that we can use elsewhere. You know like help those need.
devils chaplain
(602 posts)As far as actually decoding the encryption. One can create unbreakable encrypted files for free -- look up PGP.
My guess is Lavabit simply doesn't want to comply with this court order on principle.
1-Old-Man
(2,667 posts)You have no idea ....
ProdigalJunkMail
(12,017 posts)your commentary is utterly laughable.
sP
frylock
(34,825 posts)usGovOwesUs3Trillion
(2,022 posts)Our data.
However, it seems that snowden had enough security to keep them in the dark long enough to accomplish his mission.
It also seems as though the totalitarian thugs need to use brute force measures to get what they want.
Maybe they shut those services down because they are too good at what they do?
1-Old-Man
(2,667 posts)ProdigalJunkMail
(12,017 posts)or the message cannot be forwarded properly. the message contents... yeah, good luck reading that.
sP
krispos42
(49,445 posts)I know that cracking codes takes a lot of processing power, so even if the NSA can do it, there is a limit to the number of encrypted files they can crack any given day.
And the more things get encrypted, the smaller the fraction of total emails sent they will be able to crack.
I can envision a situation where the NSA stores copies of all emails (including attachments) in encrypted form but can only crack the ones they can get a warrant for, or ones that are relevant to a specific case. It would prevent trolling through the mountains of information simply because there is not enough processing power to do more than urgent, specific decryption on a limited number of emails.
frylock
(34,825 posts)the reason these services are going offline isn't because the NSA is capable decrypting their encoded emails. it's because the NSA has likely DEMANDED access to these servers. rather than comply, these patriots are saying FUCK YOU! we're taking the servers offline instead.