Techies vs. NSA: Encryption arms race escalates

http://www.adn.com/2013/11/29/3203295/techies-vs-nsa-encryption-arms.html


Techies vs. NSA: Encryption arms race escalates
By MARTHA MENDOZA
November 29, 2013 Updated 7 minutes ago

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Encrypted email, secure instant messaging and other privacy services are booming in the wake of the National Security Agency's recently revealed surveillance programs. But the flood of new computer security services is of variable quality, and much of it, experts say, can bog down computers and isn't likely to keep out spies.

In the end, the new geek wars —between tech industry programmers on the one side and government spooks, fraudsters and hacktivists on the other— may leave people's PCs and businesses' computer systems encrypted to the teeth but no better protected from hordes of savvy code crackers.

~snip~

In addition, experts agree that with enough time and money, any encryption can be broken. And already the NSA has bypassed —or altogether cracked— much of the digital encryption that businesses and everyday Web surfers use, according to reports based on Snowden's disclosures. The reports describe how the NSA invested billions of dollars, starting in 2000, to make nearly everyone's secrets available for government consumption.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government's computing power continues to grow. This fall, the NSA plans to open a $1.7 billion cyber-arsenal — a Utah data center filled with super-powered computers designed to store massive amounts of classified information, including data that awaits decryption.