foia – Noise

List of Old NSA Training Videos

Bruce Schneier — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 16:03:19 +0000

The NSA’s “National Cryptographic School Television Catalogue” from 1991 lists about 600 COMSEC and SIGINT training videos. There are a bunch explaining the operations of various cryptographic equipment, and a few code words I have ne...

2017 ODNI Memo on Kaspersky Labs

Bruce Schneier — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 11:08:40 +0000

It’s heavily redacted, but still interesting. Many more ODNI documents here.

Declassified NSA Newsletters

Bruce Schneier — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 17:05:15 +0000

Through a 2010 FOIA request (yes, it took that long), we have copies of the NSA’s KRYPTOS Society Newsletter, “Tales of the Krypt,” from 1994 to 2003.

There are many interesting things in the 800 pages of newsletter. There are many redactions. And a 1994 review of Applied Cryptography by redacted:

Applied Cryptography, for those who don’t read the internet news, is a book written by Bruce Schneier last year. According to the jacket, Schneier is a data security expert with a master’s degree in computer science. According to his followers, he is a hero who has finally brought together the loose threads of cryptography for the general public to understand. Schneier has gathered academic research, internet gossip, and everything he could find on cryptography into one 600-page jumble...

Documents about the NSA’s Banning of Furby Toys in the 1990s

Bruce Schneier — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 17:03:06 +0000

Via a FOIA request, we have documents from the NSA about their banning of Furby toys. 404 Media has the story. EDITED TO ADD: The documents are now on Archive.org.

More Military Cryptanalytics, Part III

Bruce Schneier — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 11:37:25 +0000

Late last year, the NSA declassified and released a redacted version of Lambros D. Callimahos’s Military Cryptanalytics, Part III. We just got most of the index. It’s hard to believe that there are any real secrets left in this 44-year-old ...

Military Cryptanalytics, Part III

Bruce Schneier — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 20:34:06 +0000

The NSA has just declassified and released a redacted version of Military Cryptanalytics, Part III, by Lambros D. Callimahos, October 1977.

Parts I and II, by Lambros D. Callimahos and William F. Friedman, were released decades ago — I believe repeatedly, in increasingly unredacted form — and published by the late Wayne Griswold Barker’s Agean Park Press. I own them in hardcover.

Like Parts I and II, Part III is primarily concerned with pre-computer ciphers. At this point, the document only has historical interest. If there is any lesson for today, it’s that modern cryptanalysis is possible primarily because people make mistakes...