Did the NSA buy a backdoor into RSA's crypto?
Posted by: Timothy Weaver on 12/24/2013 05:30 PM
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In late September, RSA warned its customers that they should choose a different cryptographically secure random number generator while it reviews its own products for potential vulnerabilities. Why?
RSA received $10m from the NSA. Chump change if you are figuring that they received the preferred random number algorithm that was the backbone of RSA's Dual Elliptic Curve Deterministic Random Bit Generator (Dual EC DRBG).
Reuters reports that in 2005, RSA brought in only $27.5m for its BSafe encryption libraries. By accepting $10m from the NSA, as Reuters claims, the BSafe division managed to increase its contribution to RSA's bottom line by more than a third.
RSA maintains that it never conspired with the NSA.
"RSA always acts in the best interest of its customers and under no circumstances does RSA design or enable any back doors in our products," the company wrote in a canned statement. "Decisions about the features and functionality of RSA products are our own."
Reuters reports that in 2005, RSA brought in only $27.5m for its BSafe encryption libraries. By accepting $10m from the NSA, as Reuters claims, the BSafe division managed to increase its contribution to RSA's bottom line by more than a third.
RSA maintains that it never conspired with the NSA.
"RSA always acts in the best interest of its customers and under no circumstances does RSA design or enable any back doors in our products," the company wrote in a canned statement. "Decisions about the features and functionality of RSA products are our own."
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