NSA declassifies 200 year old book on cryptography

[bananas]

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2011/07/nsa_krypto.html

NSA “Declassified” Publicly Available Text on Cryptology
July 27th, 2011 by Steven Aftergood

Last month the National Security Agency announced the declassification of various historic records as evidence of its “commitment to meeting the requirements” of President Obama’s policy on openness and transparency. Among the newly declassified records was a 200 year old publication on cryptology. (“NSA Declassifies 200 Year Old Report,” Secrecy News, June 9, 2011.)

<snip>

The June 8 NSA press statement hailed the disclosure of “early publications on cryptography, including ‘Cryptology: Instruction Book on the Art of Secret Writing’ from 1809. In fact, the document is a German work and its real title is “Kryptographik: Lehrbuch der Geheimschreibekunst…” by Johann Ludwig Klüber (1762-1837), who was the first Professor of Law at the University of Heidelberg.

<snip>

Though the NSA press statement seemed to indicate that the full publication was being disclosed, the material that was released by NSA was actually just a 40 page abstract and excerpt of the author’s much longer work. A copy of what was transferred to the National Archives is now posted here (pdf).

<snip>

But what neither the National Security Agency nor the National Archives seemed to realize is that not only had the source material never been classified — and so could not properly be “declassified” — but that it was already publicly available. The full 532 page text of the 1809 study — not just a 40 page abstract — was actually digitized several years ago and published online through Google Books.

<snip>

[derby378]

1. Bwaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!

And these are the guys who are monitoring our e-mail and phone calls? Sweet! :rofl:

[cdsilv]

2. Read Cryptomicon by Neal Stephenson. / nt

[Speck Tater]

3. How did we reach the point were nothing but MORONS are in charge? nt

[FiveGoodMen]

4. We kept compromising with them

We move their way, they move farther to the right, we move their way, they move farther ...

Of course this raises the question of who is really the moron.