[OT] more from Cryptome on NSA, Windows firewals, mail services

[Ringo Kamens]

Also, see http://www.schneier.com/essay-198.html
And yeah, I was talking about the NSA key.
Comrade Ringo Kamens

On Jan 2, 2008 4:24 PM, Nick Mathewson <nickm at freehaven.net> wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 02, 2008 at 02:47:11PM -0600, Eugene Y. Vasserman wrote:
> > Thus spake Ringo Kamens on Sun, 23 Dec 2007:
> >
> > (snip)
> > >    Also, we know the NSA and DoJ have engaged in
> > >    this type of activity in the past such as "working" with Microsoft
> to
> > >    secure vista and having their private key inserted into windows
> > >    versions so they could decrypt things.
> >
> > I've heard of the Vista bit, but what are you referring to, as far as
> > having a decryption key for Windows stuff? I know they had one in...
> > What was it? Lotus Notes?
>
> He's probably referring to the "NSAKey" key in NT 4.  For more
> information, see
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nsakey
>
> It's a secondary code-signing key, allegedy to be used if their
> primary code signing key needed to be revoked.
>
> If you believe Microsoft, the key was called "_NSAKEY" because it was
> introduced in order to meet NSA requirements for a secondary key.
> Naming things after the software or organization that requires them,
> rather than after their actual purpose, is not unusual for Microsoft:
> Their office XML spec is littered with stuff like the notorious
> AutoSpaceLikeWord95.
>
> Personally, I don't believe that contemporary operating systems are so
> secure that the NSA would rather have security holes custom-built for
> it instead of just using the ones that are already there.
>
> peace,
> --
> Nick
>
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