

 Spies worry over "doomsday" cache stashed by ex-NSA contractor Snowden - 001sky
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/25/us-usa-security-doomsday-idUSBRE9AO0Y120131125

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ganeumann
All sorts of interesting in here, hard for my brain to grok.

"British and U.S. intelligence officials say they are worried about...heavily
encrypted material they believe former National Security Agency contractor
Edward Snowden has stored on a data cloud...The data is protected with
sophisticated encryption, and multiple passwords are needed to open it...The
passwords are...valid for only a brief time window each day."

How, if the data are out in the cloud, can the passwords be valid for a brief
window of time? Interesting, if true.

"One former senior U.S. official said that the Chinese and Russians have
cryptographers skilled enough to open the cache if they find it."

What kind of encryption is this, then? Snowden had said even the NSA couldn't
break strong encryption. Which is true: (a) the NSA not using strong
encryption on its own documents, or (b) Russia and China have better
cryptographers than us, or (c) the NSA can, in fact, break strong encryption,
or (d) the statement in the article is untrue and alarmist?

"Among the material which Snowden acquired from classified government computer
servers...are documents containing names and resumes of employees working
for...GCHQ...The sources said Snowden started downloading some of it from a
classified GCHQ website, known as GC-Wiki, when he was employed by Dell and
assigned to NSA in 2012...Sources familiar with unpublished material Snowden
downloaded said it also contains information about the CIA - possibly
including personnel names - as well as other U.S. spy agencies."

Contractors have access to the names of intelligence agents? That seems
unwise.

