In addition to spying on everyone worldwide, the NSA has “manipulated and weakened a cryptography standard” its fellow bureaucracy, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) “issued several years ago.”

Techies assure us that “buggy software and flawed operating systems still pose a far greater threat to data security” than the government’s hamfisted efforts to pervert its own guidelines. But, happily, they also recognize that “the real issue is the government’s credibility. ‘This sort of a thing is a big deal from a political perspective,’ [says Paul] Kocher[, founder, president and chief scientist of Cryptography Research, a designer of data, computer and network security systems]… ‘You expect that the government will produce security standards with pure intent.'” You do? Why? “‘When that line’s crossed, even if it’s not in a widely used program, that’s obviously troubling.’”

Heh heh.

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