US allies suspicious of NSA motives

Nations force spy agency to back down over 2 data encryption techniques

An international group of cryptography experts has forced the US national security agency to back down over two data encryption techniques it wanted set as global industry standards, reflecting deep mistrust among close US allies.

In interviews and emails, academic and industry experts from countries including Germany, Japan and Israel worried that the US electronic spy agency was pushing the new techniques not because they were good encryption tools, but because it knew how to break them.

The NSA has now agreed to drop all but the most powerful versions of the techniques — those least likely to be vulnerable to hacks — to address the concerns.

The dispute, which has played out in a series of closed-door meetings around the world over the past three years and has not been previously reported, turns on whether the International Organisation of Standards should approve two NSA data encryption techniques, known as Simon and Speck.

The US delegation to the ISO on encryption issues includes a handful of NSA officials, though it is controlled by an American standards body, the American National Standards Institute. The presence of the NSA officials and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations about the agency’s penetration of global electronic systems have made a number of delegates suspicious of the U.S. delegation’s motives, according to interviews with a dozen current and former delegates.

Cryptography experts forced the US national security agency to back down over two data encryption techniques

Experts worried that the US was pushing the new techniques because it knew how to break them

The NSA has now agreed to drop all but the most powerful versions of the techniques

Edward Snowden’s revelations made delegates suspicious of US motive