NSA\'s Suite B Cryptography suggests some cryptographic algorithms for encryptio
ID: 648281 • Letter: N
Question
NSA's Suite B Cryptography suggests some cryptographic algorithms for encryption, digital signatures, message digests and key agreements. The selected algorithms and their key size are suggested by the security level needed.
But is there any reason to think that the NSA suggests those algorithms because they know backdoors or something like that? Is it really secure to rely on those algorithms? Or should one assume that the NSA just suggests these algorithms in order to make people use algorithms with backdoors?
Explanation / Answer
It mainly depends on how the algorithm was selected. If it was selected by a public competition like for AES, then it is likely to be secure. If it was forced in by the NSA such as Dual-EC random number generator, then you may have some doubts.
Other questions you may want to ask yourself are:
In the end you will always have a grey area here. Some things like AES are probably secure, Dual-EC certainly is not. But for the (NIST/SECP) ECC parameters it's a lot harder to say.
Saying that Suite B is safe or not is a blanket statement that oversimplifies what is happening in the field of cryptography.
As it is highly visible, it will be highly scrutinized by the cryptographic community. But as Dual-EC proves nothing is to be fully trusted.
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