CDT Statement on NSA Decryption Revelations
Contact: Brian Wesolowski, 202.407.8814, [email protected]
The Center for Democracy & Technology issued the following statement in response to the latest revelations from the documents leaked by Edward Snowden as reported by the New York Times, the Guardian and ProPublica that the NSA effectively undermines much of the existing online encryption technology used for privacy and security.
“These revelations demonstrate a fundamental attack on the way the Internet works. In an era in which businesses, as well as the average consumer, trust secure networks and technologies for sensitive transactions and private communications online, it’s incredibly destructive for the NSA to add flaws to such critical infrastructure,” said Joseph Lorenzo Hall, CDT Senior Staff Technologist.
“The NSA seems to be operating on the fantastically naïve assumption that any vulnerabilities it builds into core Internet technologies can only be exploited by itself and its global partners. The NSA simply should not be building vulnerabilities into the fundamental tools that we all rely upon to protect our private information,” Hall added.
