Daily Archives: January 24, 2015

A U.S. agency that develops widely used standards for encryption has pledged to be more transparent about its dealings with the National Security Agency, amid concerns the NSA undermined those standards to boost its surveillance efforts.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology outlined new proposed operating procedures in an updated draft published Friday. Its seeking public comments on the proposal through March 27.

The document follows a report last July from independent security experts who concluded NIST had put too much faith in the NSA in developing cryptographic standards.

The new draft expands on NISTs interactions with the National Security Agency (NSA), explaining how the agencies work together and what steps are now in place to ensure NSAs contributions to the standards development process are transparent, NIST said.

The new processes will ensure that NIST attributes to the NSA all algorithms, standards or guidelines contributed by the agencys staff, and acknowledges all comments received from the NSA.

NIST has been in the spotlight since 2013, when reports based on leaked documents from Edward Snowden claimed the NSA used its influence over NIST to insert a backdoor in at least one cryptographic standard and possibly to weaken others.

Last February, NIST appointed an independent panel of technologists review its practices, including Ed Felten, a computer scientist at Princeton University, Ron Rivest, an MIT professor, and Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, who works at Google.

They concluded that NIST needed to hire more cryptographic experts and reduce its reliance on the NSA for decisions about standards.

Fridays proposal reflects the feedback in that report and from public comments on the first draft, which was published last February and said much less about NISTs work with the NSA.

NIST is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Formed in 1901, its charged with making U.S. businesses more competitive by creating standard measures for weights and time, as well as standards for encryption, x-ray radiation and other areas.

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NIST pledges transparency in NSA dealings over crypto standards

It is revealed as part of a Telegraph investigation which also unearthed an audio recording appearing to capture Litvinenko giving a detailed account of his investigations into links between Vladimir Putin and one of the worlds most dangerous criminals.

The tape will reignite claims that Litvinenko could have been killed as a result of investigative work he carried out in a series of European countries after leaving Russia.

These claims are likely to be played out in the High Court as the Litvinenko Inquiry, chaired by Sir Robert Owen, a former high court judge, conducts its hearings.

Last year Sir Robert said that he had seen prima facie evidence that the Russia state was involved in the murder.

It is likely that the NSA intelligence formed part of the evidence that Sir Robert was given.

The disclosure of the material is likely to be put pressure on the British governments relationship with the Kremlin and will renew calls for the UK to toughen its stance.

The start of the inquiry comes after years of campaigning by Marina Litvinenko, the widow of the former KGB spy, for an official verdict on his death.

Mrs Litvinenko has applied to the NSA to disclose telephone intercepts, and says that all information should be disclosed to Sir Robert.

Litvinenko was poisoned in November 2006 during a meeting at a Mayfair hotel. He died three weeks later. Tests revealed that he ingested a rare isotope, polonium 210, which is hard to detect.

British prosecutors want two men, Andrei Lugovoy and Dimitri Kovtun, both of whom are former KGB bodyguards, to face murder charges over the murder.

Link:
Litvinenko inquiry: the proof Russia was involved in dissident's murder