WASHINGTON: Leaks revealing how American spies have circumvented encryption for online communications are “not news” because code-breaking is part of their job, US intelligence said yesterday.
But revelations to newspapers about how the National Security Agency (NSA), along with British spy services, have deciphered data under encryption could help America’s adversaries, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement.
“While the specifics of how our intelligence agencies carry out this cryptanalytic mission have been kept secret, the fact that NSA’s mission includes deciphering enciphered communications is not a secret, and is not news,” the ODNI said in a statement.
“It should hardly be surprising that our intelligence agencies seek ways to counteract our adversaries’ use of encryption,” the ODNI said.
“Throughout history, nations have used encryption to protect their secrets, and today terrorists, cybercriminals, human traffickers and others also use code to hide their activities,” it said.
“Our intelligence community would not be doing its job if we did not try to counter that,” the office said. The ODNI noted that the National Security Agency’s website describes its mission to include “cryptology.”
The statement came a day after the latest dramatic disclosures about the scale of American electronic surveillance, based on leaks from former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.
Documents handed over by Snowden to The Guardian, The New York Times and ProPublica suggest US and British intelligence agencies are able to penetrate supposedly secure encryption used to protect emails, banking transactions and phone conversations. AFP
