On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 3:29 PM, Joe Greco <jgreco@ns.sol.net> wrote:
* Joe Greco: [snip
Either we take the potential for transparent MitM attacks seriously, or we do not. I'm sure the NSA would prefer "not." :-)
I doubt the NSA is interested in MITM attacks which can be spotted by comparing key material. 8-)
Doubting that the NSA might be interested in any given technique is, of course, good for the NSA. Our national security people have been known to use imperfect interception technologies when it suits the task at hand. Do people here really so quickly forget things? There was a talk on Carnivore given in 2000 at NANOG 20, IIRC, and I believe that one of the instigating causes of that talk was problems that Earthlink had experienced when the FBI had deployed Carnivore there.
Naturally. The NSA isn't filled with theorists who want to get the job done the "right" way. They have a mission to fulfill, and they'll use whatever tool works to get it done.