Brazil to begin using encrypted email service to avoid cyber spying

Wednesday, October 16th 2013 - 14:02 UTC

Full article 7 comments

Brazilian officials say that all government employees will start using an encrypted email service in an effort to stop foreign spies from intercepting emails. But experts question the ability of Brazil to protect its government emails from the eyes of the U.S. National Security Agency. Read full article

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Captain Poppy
And the Brazilian government was not?
Oct 16th, 2013 - 02:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Conqueror
This is quite hilarious. During the Second World War, the Nazis used a cipher system that the British code-named “Ultra”. It included the so-called “Enigma” electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines. The machine employed a “polyalphabetic substitution cipher”. An indication of the complexity of the ciphers available is that using three rotors out of the available five allowed 158,962,555,217,826,360,000 (158 quintillion) different settings.

But what about now? There is commercially-available password-cracker software applications that can crack virtually any 15-digit password. The essence is finding the “key”. There are a number of methods. And, at the bottom line, there is “force”. The application throws so many options at the “problem” that is overwhelmed. And that is just using an ordinary present-day home computer. Imagine the computer power likely to be available to the NSA.

Back to 1939-45. What helps you crack a cipher system? The number of messages you can intercept and apply your decryption techniques to. Who would use the Nazi Enigma machines? Captains of naval vessels. Commanding officers of army units and Luftwaffe squadrons. The Nazis produced 100,000. And all Brazilian federal officials will have to use its system. As of 1995, the Brazilian government 650,000 civilian personnel. Shouldn't take NSA long.

Oh, and look “The entire system is compromised if any user of an encrypted email sends a message to somebody on an outside program, like Gmail.”
Oct 16th, 2013 - 07:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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ChrisR
As I predicted in a previous topic Brazil are making a laughing stock of themselves.

Unless they use a grown up approach all this is doomed to fail.

I am most certainly NOT going to state the real way to tackle this, but it does work and is readily available. Apparently the only way to defeat it is by “force” but you need a supercomputer or a massive parallel system, and time, to do it.
Oct 16th, 2013 - 08:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Gonzo22
I like the comments of #1,2 and 3, one day they say that Brazil is the top, the best, the leader, the next day they sayd that Brazil is a banana republic, a laughing stock, garbage and is doomed or worst things haha
Oct 16th, 2013 - 09:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Captain Poppy
Point to the post were 1,2,or 3 ever stated what you posted?
Oct 17th, 2013 - 12:20 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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JoseAngeldeMonterrey
Pure demagoguery. There`s absolutely nothing Brazil can do. The main authoritative root servers are controlled by the US.
Oct 18th, 2013 - 12:54 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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Captain Poppy
In the first place, what Mickey Mouse country does not use secured email? In the corporate sector we've been using it since the mid to late 90's. Geeeeez.
But it does not stop those that want to read it.
Oct 18th, 2013 - 09:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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