Re:Factoring may be easier than we think
by mindslight on Wednesday August 24, 2016 @08:18PM
(#12356157)
You're conflating the NSA with the rest of the government, namely the FBI. I believe some spokesperson from the NSA has even gone on record lately against the FBI's desires to criminalize [applied math]. The NSA is an organization that tackles the world as it is.
Compromised standards, TAOed equipment, global passive adversary, exploiting OPSEC fails. Even if the highest compartments of the NSA were able to instantly factor any RSA key, these alternative methods would still be useful for plausible deniability as well as general use by less-privileged compartments.
The FBI is lucky to receive any of the NSA's scraps (and if they did, it would be some vague tip to start looking in the right place), hence being left to push for criminalization to facilitate their actual investigations.
Compromised standards, TAOed equipment, global passive adversary, exploiting OPSEC fails. Even if the highest compartments of the NSA were able to instantly factor any RSA key, these alternative methods would still be useful for plausible deniability as well as general use by less-privileged compartments.
The FBI is lucky to receive any of the NSA's scraps (and if they did, it would be some vague tip to start looking in the right place), hence being left to push for criminalization to facilitate their actual investigations.