US and British intelligence agencies have successfully cracked the online encryption relied upon by hundreds of millions of people to protect the privacy of their personal data, banking transactions and emails, according to top-secret documents revealed by former contractor Edward Snowden. The files show that the National Security Agency and its UK counterpart GCHQ have broadly compromised the guarantees that internet companies have given consumers to reassure them that their communications, online banking and medical records would be indecipherable. In a clandestine, decade-long effort to defeat digital scrambling, the National Security Agency, along with its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), have used supercomputers to crack encryption codes through "brute force" and have inserted secret "back doors" into software with the help of technology companies, The Guardian and The New York Times reported. usatoday/story/news/nation/2013/09/05/nsa-snowden-encryption-cracked/2772721/
Posted on: Sat, 07 Sep 2013 03:12:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015