Slashdot Mirror
TrueCrypt Audit Back On Track After Silence and Uncertainty
itwbennett writes: In October 2013 Cryptography professor Matthew Green and security researcher Kenneth White launched a project to perform a professional security audit of TrueCrypt, partly prompted by the leaks from Edward Snowden that suggested the NSA was engaged in efforts to undermine encryption. Their report, published in April 2014, covered the first phase of the audit. Phase two was supposed to involve a formal review of the program's encryption functions, with the goal of uncovering any potential errors in the cryptographic implementations—but then the unexpected happened. In May 2014, the developers of TrueCrypt, who had remained anonymous over the years for privacy reasons, abruptly announced that they were discontinuing the project and advised users to switch to alternatives. Now, almost a year later, the project is back on track.
You sound like someone new to the concept of 'independent audit'.
So an audit performed by a closed group of corporates who have, no doubt, been thoroughly vetted and has never, ever, ever gotten a phone call from anyone in a suit offering them the choice of a bag of cash to play ball, or an increased probability of "accidents" and "unfortunate data leaks."
Given the farewell address we got from the TC devs, which I'm sure most of us remember, and the laughable suggestions of "alternatives," there are two strong possibilities for why the project was shuttered:
1. The developers all suffered a massive psychotic break at the same time.
2. A canary so big and obvious that it's more of a "warrant roc."
They may have ended the "silence", but the "uncertainty" is still alive and well, AFAIC.