NIST Updates Random Number Generation Guidelines

Posted by Soulskill on Friday June 26, 2015 @05:34PM from the of-barn-doors-and-horses dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Encryption weighs heavily on the public consciousness these days, as we've learned that government agencies are keeping an eye on us and a lot of our security tools aren't as foolproof as we've thought. In response to this, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has issued a formal update to its document on how to properly generate a random number — crucial in many types of encryption. The update (as expected) removes a recommendation for the Dual_EC_DRBG algorithm. It also adds extra options for CTR_DRBG and points out examples for implementing SP 800-90A generators. The full document (PDF) is available online.

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Why should we trust NIST encryption? by Slayer · 2015-06-26 23:20 · Score: 4, Insightful

NIST recklessly broke our trust in them by allowing known to be broken encryption into their standard. Their new document may come with all the best intentions, but it will take years to rebuild that trust. Let's wait for what the crypto community has to say about these documents, before we blindly follow their latest standards.