i think everyone needs to stop, breathe, and take a step back from the panic.. there is a lexis-nexis between the nsa*, darpa**, the rand corporation***, and research universities like mit.. before we all go ape shit kookoo bananas over the heartbleed flaw in the internet open-ssl encryption code****, we need to watch, or re-watch war games.. the matthew broderick cold-war-is-bad-because-nobdy-wins flick from the 80s..
remember that during the whole edward snowden media frenzy, the nsa announced quietly that they had "broken" the open-ssl encryption code and were using it to quietly national security us out of our privacy.. now there are reports that suggest the heartbleed flaw was the what and how the nsa broke the o-ssl in the first place. well it wouldnt surprise me to learn that some geek at mit or darpa created heartbleed as a backdoor into the o-ssl encryption code back in the 70's or 80's.. you know, maybe even the late 60's when the whole interweb thing was being invented by the government. if we learned anything from war games besides the fact that ally sheedy is a terrible actress, its that geeks, code writers/computer engineers always put in a "back door", even if just for shits and grins. this time, the spaz that did it now works or did work at nsa and simply exploited a "flaw" that he created 30 or 40 yrs ago.. all advancements in technology have a dark-side. in this particular instance, and prolly dozens if not thousands of others, the fascists in the bush 43 administration made it ok for the gvt to "something something dark side" in the name of killing terrorists and limiting freedom. we need to stop following the medias agenda about whats important, or newsworthy, and decide for ourselves.. congress was largely complicit in the whole nsa domestic data harvesting scheme, the media mostly ignored it until edward snowden risked his life and liberty to reveal the truth. congress is supposed to work for us, to have our best interest at heart.. to follow the constitution.. they dont. wake up. end rant..
~ david
*nsa_ The National Security Agency (NSA) is a U.S. intelligence agency responsible for the production and management of signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance for the United States government. Originating as a unit to decipher code communications in World War I, it was officially formed as the NSA by President Truman in 1952. Since then, it has become one of the largest of U.S. intelligence organizations in terms of personnel and budget,[6][8] operating under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense and reporting to the Director of National Intelligence.
**darpa _ The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technologies for use by the military. DARPA has been responsible for funding the development of many technologies which have had a major effect on the world, including computer networking, as well as NLS, which was both the first hypertext system, and an important precursor to the contemporary ubiquitous graphical user interface.
*** the rand corporation_ RAND Corporation (Research ANd Development[2]) is a nonprofit global policy think tank formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is financed by the U.S. government and private endowment,[3] corporations[4] including the health care industry, universities[5] and private individuals.[6] The organization has expanded to work with other governments, private foundations, international organizations, and commercial organizations on a host of non-defense issues. RAND aims for interdisciplinary and quantitative problem solving via translating theoretical concepts from formal economics and the physical sciences into novel applications in other areas, that is, via applied science and operations research. Michael D. Rich is president and chief executive officer of the RAND Corporation.
****open-ssl encryption code_ OpenSSL is an open-source implementation of the SSL and TLS protocols. The core library, written in the C programming language, implements the basic cryptographic functions and provides various utility functions. Wrappers allowing the use of the OpenSSL library in a variety of computer languages are available.
Versions are available for most Unix-like operating systems (including Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X and the various open source BSD operating systems), OpenVMS and Microsoft Windows. IBM provides a port for the System i (OS/400). OpenSSL is based on SSLeay by Eric Andrew Young and Tim Hudson, development of which unofficially ended on December 17, 1998, when Young and Hudson both started to work for RSA Security.
~ wiki
