NSA ‘altered random-number generator’

US intelligence agency the NSA subverted a standards process to be able to break encryption more easily, according to leaked documents.

It had written a flaw into a random-number generator that would allow the agency to predict the outcome of the algorithm, the New York Times reported.

The agency had used its influence at a standards body to insert the backdoor, said the report.

The NSA had made no comment at the time of writing.

According to the report, based on a memo leaked by former NSA contactor Edward Snowden, the agency had gained sole control of the authorship of the Dual_EC_DRBG algorithm and pushed for its adoption by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (Nist) into a 2006 US government standard.

SOURCE: bbc.co.uk