[infowar.de] New Scientist 17.1.02: Weakened encryption lays bare al-Qaeda files

[Georg Schoefbaenker <schoefbaenker -! - aon - at>]

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http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991804
  
Weakened encryption lays bare al-Qaeda files 
17:07 17 January 02 
Will Knight
  
Relatively weak encryption appears to have been used to protect files recovered from two computers believed to have belonged to al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan.

The files were found on a laptop and desktop computer bought by Wall Street Journal reporters from looters in Kabul a few days after it was captured by Northern Alliance forces on 13 November. The files provide information about reconnaissance missions to Europe and the Middle East. 

A report in the UK's Independent newspaper indicates that the encryption used to protect these files had been significantly weakened by US export restrictions that existed until last year.

The files were reportedly stored using Microsoft's Windows 2000 operating system and protected from unauthorised access using the Encrypting File System (EFS), which comes as standard on this platform. They were protected with a 40-bit Data Encryption Standard (DES), according to the Independent report. This was the maximum strength encryption allowed for export by US law until March 2001. All systems are now sold with the standard 128-bit key encryption, exponentially stronger than 40-bit.

Wall Street Journal reporters say that they decrypted a number of files using "an array of high-powered computers" to try every possible combination, or "key" in succession, a process that took five days.


Billions of keys 

Brian Gladman, an ex-NATO encryption expert based in the UK, says that 56-bit DES means checking about a billion billion different keys in succession. This would take the average desktop computer a year, but a group of powerful machines could perform the feat in a few days, he says. However, he adds: "If you go much beyond 56 bit it is outside the realm of possible."

But Gladman says the US should not seek to reintroduce controls on the export of strong encryption products in light of this evidence. He believes that export controls would not necessarily stop terrorists and could harm the security of companies outside the US.

"The internet is already vulnerable and if we do not implement strong encryption, criminals will get away with murder," Gladman told New Scientist. "Any efforts to prevent the deployment of this technology will damage us rather than help."

Gladman says that terrorists can rely on far more elementary techniques to keep information secret and communicate covertly. These include using secret code words and anonymous internet cafes. 
  
17:07 17 January 02 


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