Prying Eyes: Inside the NSA's War on Internet Security

Prying Eyes: Inside the NSA's War on Internet Security
BERLIN, GERMANY - AUGUST 06: Half ripped of flyer with a portrait of Edward Snowden and the request to grant him asylum on August 06, 2014, in Berlin, Germany. Edward Snowden came to international attention after disclosing to several media outlets thousands of classified documents that he acquired while working as an NSA contractor for Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton. (Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images)***Local Caption***
BERLIN, GERMANY - AUGUST 06: Half ripped of flyer with a portrait of Edward Snowden and the request to grant him asylum on August 06, 2014, in Berlin, Germany. Edward Snowden came to international attention after disclosing to several media outlets thousands of classified documents that he acquired while working as an NSA contractor for Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton. (Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images)***Local Caption***

US and British intelligence agencies undertake every effort imaginable to crack all types of encrypted Internet communication. The cloud, it seems, is full of holes. The good news: New Snowden documents show that some forms of encryption still cause problems for the NSA.

When Christmas approaches, the spies of the Five Eyes intelligence services can look forward to a break from the arduous daily work of spying. In addition to their usual job -- attempting to crack encryption all around the world -- they play a game called the "Kryptos Kristmas Kwiz," which involves solving challenging numerical and alphabetical puzzles. The proud winners of the competition are awarded "Kryptos" mugs.

Encryption -- the use of mathematics to protect communications from spying -- is used for electronic transactions of all types, by governments, firms and private users alike. But a look into the archive of whistleblower Edward Snowden shows that not all encryption technologies live up to what they promise.

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