News Source: http://www.overclockersclub.com/news/34967/
Copy of the material on OCC.com below:
"Information leaked by Edward Snowden reveals that the National Security Agency bribed security firm RSA to include backdoors within its encryption. More specifically, the intentional flaws made within the RSA’s encryption tokens were made public. RSA received a total of $10 million from the NSA for providing a backdoor to the encryption. Two unknown individuals who are familiar with BSafe, an encryption software offered by RSA, stated that RSA made the NSA’s cryptographic formula the default encryption key within the software in exchange for the money. RSA, who is currently owned by EMC Corporation, did not return a request for comment on the issue."
Their News Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57616205-83/security-firm-rsa-took-millions-from-nsa-report/
(The less-serious stuff below: )
In other semi-related news, the price of tin foil has skyrocketed, and it seems to be the ongoing trend in 2013, possibly in 2014 as well. Those who bought a roll of tin foil for their houses might have a considerable investment, after these recent leaks.
Also in the news, patents over tin foil hat designs have also skyrocketed, with Apple and Samsung possibly trying to go to court over the exclusive tin foil hat designs in upcoming products. We'll have more on this story as it develops.
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(Now for the inevitable gloating parade.)
Now, for all those people who have been saying that "no encryption firm would ever include intentional backdoors, even if a government agency asked them to do so" and that "between point A and point B, there's no way to intercept or decrypt the data", I think a good round of "I told you so" is in order.
I wonder if in HTTP 2.0 we might end up seeing OpenSource encryption protocols, since encryption will be required? Also, I wonder if we might also see more OpenSource forms of internet technologies to help keep government snooping out (or at least make it harder).
(Also, the idea of URI instead of URL seems to be a very promising idea.)