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GCHQ on Quantum Key Distribution

The UK’s GCHQ delivers a brutally blunt assessment of quantum key distribution:

QKD protocols address only the problem of agreeing keys for encrypting data. Ubiquitous on-demand modern services (such as verifying identities and data integrity, establishing network sessions, providing access control, and automatic software updates) rely more on authentication and integrity mechanisms — such as digital signatures — than on encryption.

QKD technology cannot replace the flexible authentication mechanisms provided by contemporary public key signatures. QKD also seems unsuitable for some of the grand future challenges such as securing the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, social media, or cloud applications.

I agree with them. It’s a clever idea, but basically useless in practice. I don’t even think it’s anything more than a niche solution in a world where quantum computers have broken our traditional public-key algorithms.

Read the whole thing. It’s short.

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August 1, 2018 authentication, cryptography, economicsofsecurity, encryption, gchq, keys, quantumcomputing, quantumcryptography, Security technology Read more >

NSA/GCHQ Hacks SIM Card Database and Steals Billions of Keys

The Intercept has an extraordinary story: the NSA and/or GCHQ hacked into the Dutch SIM card manufacturer Gemalto, stealing the encryption keys for billions of cell phones. People are still trying to figure out exactly what this means, but it seems to mean that the intelligence agencies have access to both voice and data from all phones using those cards.

Me in The Register: “We always knew that they would occasionally steal SIM keys. But all of them? The odds that they just attacked this one firm are extraordinarily low and we know the NSA does like to steal keys where it can.”

I think this is one of the most important Snowden stories we’ve read.

More news stories. Slashdot thread. Hacker News thread.

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February 20, 2015 cellphones, databases, eavesdropping, edwardsnowden, gchq, hacking, nsa, phones, privacy, Security technology, simcards, surveillance Read more >

NSA Using Hacker Research and Results

In the latest article based on the Snowden documents, the Intercept is reporting that the NSA and GCHQ are piggy-backing on the work of hackers:

In some cases, the surveillance agencies are obtaining the content of emails by monitoring hackers as they breach email accounts, often without notifying the hacking victims of these breaches. “Hackers are stealing the emails of some of our targets…by collecting the hackers’ ‘take,’ we…get access to the emails themselves,” reads one top secret 2010 National Security Agency document.

Not surprising.

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February 6, 2015 edwardsnowden, gchq, hacking, intelligence, nsa, privacy, Security technology, surveillance Read more >

New Snowden Documents Show GCHQ Paying Cable & Wireless for Access

A new story based on the Snowden documents and published in the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung shows how the GCHQ worked with Cable & Wireless — acquired by Vodafone in 2012 — to eavesdrop on Internet and telecommunications traffic. New documents on the page, and here.

Ars Technica article. Slashdot thread.

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November 26, 2014 eavesdropping, edwardsnowden, gchq, phones, privacy, Security technology, surveillance Read more >