Editing Incubator escapee wiki:WikiProject Cryptography/CryptographyBlog (section)

==[[June 15]], [[2004]]==

===Analysis of alleged US cryptanalysis===
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3804895.stm
Impressively sane BBC News article discussing the recent claims about the US breaking Iranian ciphers, which includes discussion from [[Ross Anderson]], Fred Piper and [[Simon Singh]], suggesting it was unlikely to be pure cryptanalysis. Great quote from Anderson: "''As the former chief scientist of the NSA once remarked at one of our security workshops, almost all breaks of cipher systems are due to implementation errors, operational failures, burglary, blackmail and bribery. As for cryptanalysis, it happens, but very much less often than most people think.''"
: ''Potential to add information to'': [[Ahmed Chalabi]], [[NSA]]
: ''Added to'': [[Cryptanalysis]]

[[User:Matt Crypto|&mdash; Matt]] 01:20, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)
::I would note that Matt's characterization as 'impressively sane' is accurate only when compared to the usual run of wildly inaccurate (if not perhaps quite insane) articles in the popular (and even the technical -- non-cryptographic) press. In this case, there are many errors of mistatement, misimplication, and (I must presume) contracted quotation. It's just better than most, quite a bit better. 'Tis a sad state of affairs and one of the main reasons I've been contributing to the crypto corner here. Perhaps we should refer this reporter to our work on crypto? [[User:Ww|ww]] 16:48, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)
::: I guess I was impressed with the way they distinguished between breaking Iranian ciphers (possibly, but unlikely) and between breaking the Iranian cryptosystems (more likely) &mdash; no one else seemed to bother mentioning the difference. [[User:Matt Crypto|&mdash; Matt]] 13:51, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

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