[Discuss] our friend the nsa

[me at mattgillen.net (Matthew Gillen)]

On 9/19/2013 9:36 AM, Eric Chadbourne wrote:
> I wonder how much to make of this?
> 
> <quote>
> 
> NSA Backdoor
> Torvalds was also asked if he had ever been approached by the U.S.
> government to insert a backdoor into Linux.
> 
> Torvalds responded "no" while shaking his head "yes," as the audience
> broke into spontaneous laughter.

I think it's a good joke.

I think it's worth pointing out that while spying on others is part of
the NSA's charter, so is protecting the US Gov't from being spied on.

Intentionally inserting backdoors in something that in all likelihood
will see far more numerous deployments in areas you have to defend than
in areas you're trying to attack is a dangerous game.

I wouldn't bet against the Chinese being able to find it.  Witness a
number of high-profile breakins attributed to the Chinese military.  The
NSA's state-level adversaries are very advanced.

Meanwhile, the United States, being the most technologically advanced,
actually has the most to lose with compromised computer systems.  Again,
after Snowden's revelations, I read a story about the Russians going
back to using typewriters for everything.  But that doesn't mean they
stopped trying to attack our computer systems.

Yet another point of fact is that RHEL is one of the operating systems
approved for the highest levels of classified networks.

If you want to really know some of the real problems the NSA is
*supposed* to be dealing with, I highly recommend taking a listen to
this podcast:
 http://pauldotcom.com/wiki/index.php/Episode332#Interview:_Mr._Brian_Snow

Mr. Snow has some scary things to say (as an NSA crypto guy), he's
incredibly frank about some of the things the NSA looks at and what
tradeoffs it's dealing with. It's worth noting that this interview was
before any of Ed Snowden's revelations.

Matt