Thousands of computers now compromised with leaked NSA tools, researchers say

Re:Thousands of computers now compromised with leaked NSA to... by 3131s on Sunday April 23, 2017 @11:18PM (#14181716)

> there is no evidence at all which indicates the exploits leaked by Shadow Brokers are intentional backdoors

And this seems a little disingenuous. Perhaps there is no evidence so far regarding these particular leaks from Shadow Brokers, but in general the NSA has a history of creating backdoors.

You and I discussed some of this a bit already in one of the older NSA threads:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullrun_(decryption_program)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_EC_DRBG

The idea of "key escrow", used by the NSA in the Clipper Chip's Skipjack algorithm, is really a euphemism for a built-in cryptographic backdoor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_escrow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skipjack_(cipher)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Thousands of computers now compromised with leaked NSA to... by Karunamon on Monday April 24, 2017 @01:32PM (#14186215)

Perhaps there is no evidence so far regarding these particular leaks from Shadow Brokers

And right there, GP is correct. Either there is evidence to suggest that these were planted backdoors (difficulty: patched out long before the leaks), or there is not.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Thousands of computers now compromised with leaked NSA to... by willstrafach on Sunday April 23, 2017 @11:51PM (#14181862)

I definitely do not deny any previous instances. I am very against backdoors and will never defend them. But it is an extreme accusation to make against Microsoft in this case without evidence, so the fact that there is no evidence should be stated clearly to ensure people do not get confused.

[ Parent | on HN ]