From: Adam Shostack <adam@lighthouse.homeport.org>
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 16:13:58 +0800
To: fluffy@shout.net (Chris Stillson)
Subject: Re: GOST for sale
In-Reply-To: <199511292216.QAA25781@duracef.shout.net>
Message-ID: <199511300239.VAA16572@homeport.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


Chris Stillson wrote:

| What I wonder about is why anyone would use the Algorithm
| that the NSA is probably best at breaking.  Breaking GOST was probably
| their number one project for years, and I would suspect that they
| have done it.

	Bamford (The Puzzle Palace) suggests that no major Soviet or
American cipher has been cryptanalyzed since the early 70s or so.
Ciphers are chipped at by theft of keys by spies (The Falcon and the
Snowman) or military action (Seizing the Enigma).

	Also, you have to ask yourself, would the NSA reveal its
ability to break GOST traffic?  (I think it was Seymour Hersh who made
the claim that the Bush administration gave Yeltsin real time breaks*
of Generals plotting against him in the '92 coup attempt.  In
evaluating this claim, remember Bush ran the CIA for several years.)

	(*It also might be that the messages were not protected by
GOST, were obtained by bugging in a room, or other nefarious means, as
I'm sure the NSA would attest if it came out that messages were
actually passed.)

Adam


-- 
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
					               -Hume