New Jersey Congressman Seeks To Bar NSA Backdoors In Encryption

Frosty P writes "Congressman Rush D. Holt, a New Jersey Democrat, has proposed legislation (summary, full text) that would prohibit the agency from installing 'back doors' into encryption, the electronic scrambling that protects e-mail, online transactions and other communications. Representative Holt, a physicist, said Friday that he believed the NSA was overreaching and could hurt American interests, including the reputations of American companies whose products the agency may have altered or influenced. 'We pay them to spy,' Mr. Holt said. 'But if in the process they degrade the security of the encryption we all use, it's a net national disservice.'"

Comments

Re:This is a stupid idea.

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

but they tend not to screw with cryptography which is allowed to be on the GSA schedule when embodied in communications equipment for sale to the U.S.Military.

So the NSA did not screw with Dual_EC_DRBG in the NIST standard? Or is it just that any hardware which implements Dual_EC_DRBG is going to be rejected without explanation when it is submitted for FIPS 140 certification?