NSA blowback on NIST having an effect... One of the sideshows in the larger NSA scandal is the revelation that NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) had apparently cooperated with NSA in deliberately weakening the cryptographic standards that NIST produced. This cooperation by NIST was quite shocking to many people, in many fields, myself included. NIST produces an amazing array of standards, in things from metrics (the measurement of things) to cryptography to railroad gauges. Until these recent revelations, most people I knew (including me) thought of NIST as an above-the-fray, apolitical, transparent, and honest institution.
Not so much any more. I've worked directly with NIST on two occasions during my career. One involved time standards supporting electronic trading applications, the other involved electronic metrics for calibrating instruments. I can't offhand think of any reason the NSA would be interested in perverting either of those things – but these days, I'd take the possibility of that into account. Others I know who work with NIST on a more frequent basis are feeling downright paranoid about them now. So this news is welcome, though NIST is going to have a difficult time recovering its reputation entirely, I think. But it's a start...
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