[nycbug-talk] Hot Story: German Gov. intelligence agencies decrypt PGP, SSH

[Isaac (.ike) Levy]

On Jun 16, 2013, at 7:55 PM, "Isaac (.ike) Levy" <ike at blackskyresearch.net> wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> To throw a little chicken little into what is otherwise a beautiful weekend,
> 
> A google translation says:
> "The federal government declared that its secret services were basically able to decrypt PGP and Secure Shell, at least partially."
> 
> http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http://www.golem.de/news/bundesregierung-deutsche-geheimdienste-koennen-pgp-entschluesseln-1205-92031.html
> 
> --
> Apparently, GnuPG list and others merely have links to this article, I haven't found anything more except links to this vague original article.
> 
> Thoughts?  Is tomorrow morning's commute to work going to look like that new Brad Pitt movie, *or*, are we looking at a dopey expose of well-known widespread worst-practices in cryptographic misunderstandings?
> 
> Best,
> .ike


Actually, I (and others) apparently missed the fact that this article is a year old, (24.5.2012), and some American bloggers picked it up today and the misinformation spread...

It appears internet armageddon is not quite upon us tonight.

However, what in the world *was* this about when it happened?
(E.G. was this early ecdsa hyjinks, or some other known brute-forcing threshold for small key sizes?  The article and German gov. paper is so vague and confusing, I can't help but want to understand it…)

Rocket-
.ike