[From the cryptography mailing list. --Declan] ********** From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Bo_Elkj=E6r?= <bo.elkjaerat_private> Subject: Utimacos Safeguard Easy broken by danish police in tax evation ca se Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2001 22:51:08 +0200 The german encryption program Safeguard Easy has been broken by the danish police. Today the police from the city Holstebro in Jutland presented evidence in court, that was provided after breaking the encryption on five out of sixteen computers that where seized april 25 this year. All 16 computers were protected with Safeguard Easy from the german encryption provider Utimaco. It is not known whether DES, 128-bit IDEA, Blowfish or Stealth was used as algorithm on the computers. All four algorithms are built in Safeguard Easy. Details are sparse. It is not known how the encryption was broken, whether it was brute forced or flaws in the program was exploited. The computers where seized from the humanitarian (leftwing) foundation Tvind (Humana) in connection with a case about tax evation. Among the evidence provided from the encrypted computers were emails sent among the leaders of the foundation, Poul Jorgensen and Mogens Amdi Petersen describing transfers of large sums of money. Apparantly, but not confirmed, british Scotland Yard has been involved in breaking the encryption. The danish police doesn't have the capacity to break encryption by themselves. Neither has the danish civilian intelligence service. Routine is that cases concerning encryption is handed over to the danish defence intelligence service DDIS. This procedure has been described earlier this year by the danish minister of justice in connection with another case. DDIS denies involvement with the Tvind case. Employees and leaders at Tvind has denied handing over their passwords to the computers. One even wrote a public letter mocking the chief of police in Holstebro, describing how he changed his password weekly, and stating that he'd probably even forgotten his password by now. At a time, the police concidered putting employees in custody until passwords were handed over. Thats all for now Bo Elkjaer, Denmark ******** Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2001 16:25:03 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jay D. Dyson" <jdysonat_private> Subject: Re: Utimacos Safeguard Easy broken by danish police in tax evation ca se -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- On Tue, 7 Aug 2001, [iso-8859-1] Bo Elkj=E6r wrote:=20 > All 16 computers were protected with Safeguard Easy from the german > encryption provider Utimaco. It is not known whether DES, 128-bit IDEA, > Blowfish or Stealth was used as algorithm on the computers. All four > algorithms are built in Safeguard Easy. Details are sparse. It is not > known how the encryption was broken, whether it was brute forced or > flaws in the program was exploited. =09If the OS used was Windows, it's quite likely that the plaintext and/or passphrases were recovered in the Windows swap file. Barring OS considerations, it's also possible that the police put a keystroke logger on the system, just as the FBI here in the States did with an organized crime suspect.=20 =09My gut sense is that, since only five of sixteen systems were "cracked," it seems likely that it was the swap file that let the cat out of the bag. Even so, a flaw in the cryptosystem should be investigated and proven or ruled out. =09Let us not also forget that people can be pressured to divulge passphrases. Rubber-hose cryptanalysis isn't just a humorous concept. - -Jay ( ( _______ )) )) .-"There's always time for a good cup of coffee."-. >=3D=3D= =3D=3D<--. C|~~|C|~~| (>------ Jay D. Dyson - jdysonat_private ------<) | =3D |= -' `--' `--' `-Speak softly and carry a thermonuclear warhead.-' `------' -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: See http://www.treachery.net/~jdyson/ for current keys. iQCVAwUBO3BqwrlDRyqRQ2a9AQFgLQP/cUACUkIv9xZI77Nh6nbwHlYi4bpDX94K wBJ22Gt6eAecC0NT4LpE5uKn/6AR8+KUD6jXSoefKsQQa+THCz+hrPMmowqzgtQ1 FQLvOK+7VBGckPztqOD6zimW0IPTYDzI5/uP8j6OxNyQJo2gX/y7uiIOCwZML9/i bHPhCzAdRGc=3D =3D57oN -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ********* ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Aug 09 2001 - 08:32:12 PDT