Activists d & # XE9; nounce the activity & # XE9; s NSA before the D & # XE9; Department of Justice & # xE0; Washington, January 17, 2014
Activists denounce the activities of the NSA before the Justice Department in Washington, January 17, 2014 – Nicholas Kamm AFP

20 Minutes with agency

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On the sidelines of the Chaos Communication Congress (annual conference on topics related to computer and hacking) held in Hamburg, German Der Spiegel publishes new documents provided by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden and dated 2012 .

These detail the efforts of the National Agency to US security (NSA) to pierce the strongest protection on the Internet. A spy deemed “abusive and intrusive” widely criticized and condemned by public opinion

& gt;. & Gt; Also read: The NSA monitors 70% of global mobile networks

Decrypt algorithms and encryption techniques used on the Internet, “the only way to resist government oversight” by Snowden, today ‘ hui forced into exile in Russia, that’s so, the workhorse of American intelligence which multiplies the efforts for many years to counteract these technologies. Developed, in 2013, Director of the NSA, James Clapper, praised the progress “revolutionary” agency “to thwart cryptography”.



Skype is open book

So what tools are still resisting the Agency? This is the question that tried to answer several journalists, through the documents provided by Snowden, published online an inventory before presenting it to the Hamburg conference. Their conclusion? “Almost nothing can resist the NSA”

First software as quoted by the German magazine failed. Skype, messaging Microsoft. The conversations through the program, which boasts an encryption that protects Listens “by malicious users,” are in fact available since February 2011. Spiegel even reveals a document that presents . the procedure for recovery of the messaging data

Snipped from NSA document: Encryption Considered a & # Xab; & # Xbb threat;

VPN, SSL, HTTPS

And the Microsoft software is not the only one to fold against the attacks of the NSA. Several protocols used for encryption for virtual private networks (VPNs) were foiled by the Agency for several years (NSA with a unit dedicated to the interception and espionage connections protected by VPN). One of them, SSL is used daily by the general public (it allows the “secure” connections to certain Internet sites). In other words, HTTPS, which enables secure web connection, no longer seems to be a problem in US intelligence, which in 2012 had set the goal to intercept and decrypt HTTPS 10 million a day.

Given Pari, since the NSA installed several back doors so you can easily decipher the exchanges meant to be private and secure by this small padlock left of your web address, or the “s” in “https”.

PGP or Truecrypt on the grill Tor

Is there then good news? Yes I Am. It turns out that the NSA, who in his ideal world would get their hands on a “universal decryption method” still believes that the popularization of encryption tools ( applications, software, called smartphones “inviolable”, etc. .) is the main threat to the continuation of its operations

& gt;. & gt; Read here: Espionage: Technologies to escape the NSA

And the agency to break teeth on programs asking her “major” problems or “catastrophic”?. PGP protocols, Truecrypt and Off The Record are probably indecipherable. Like other open source project: Tor. Successive encryption layers on which the Internet network relies prevent the NSA to intercept data passing through. “Right now,” says Der Spiegel.