RSA Took 30 Pieces of Silver From the NSA (and Other Bits of NSA Fuckery)

There is a story out that RSA, a leader in encryption software, took $10 million from the NSA in return for designing in a back-door into its products for the NSA. RSA denies it, but their denial is not exactly ironclad. What's telling is that RSA continued to use the Dual EC DRBG random number generator as the BSAFE default RNG for six years after concerns were first raised that Dual EC DRBG had a backdoor.

The General Counsel for the Director of National Intelligence has issued a statement that the Director of National Intelligence, Mr. James Clapper, Jr. (known in this blog as "Jimmie the Perjurer") really didn't lie to Congress when he denied that the NSA was collecting data on millions (ie, 90% or so) of Americans. The denial essentially concedes, instead, that Clapper is a bit of an imbecile, in that he cannot be trusted to answer questions if he hasn't been provided with a written copy of the questions in advance.

Which makes him a little different from, oh, every other witness in any sort of court proceeding or congressional hearing, who is expected to be able to answer questions to the best of their ability without being pre-briefed. Not answering a question truthfully is a bit of a crime.

The FISA Court wielded their rubber-stamp again, approving the collection of everyone's use of every type of electronic communication for another 90 days.

The NSA has neither confirmed nor denied that it is spying on members of Congress. My feeling is that a "we can neither confirm nor deny" is pretty much a tacit confirmation.

Oh, and for one bit of non-NSA-related news, noted security expert Willard M. Romney has opined that the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia will be safe.