On 02/06/01, Choate wrote:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/02/06/terrorists.internet.ap/index.htm...
See below for an excerpt from a similar article at: http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-02-05-binladen.htm I find interesting the mention of successful fedgov "supercomputer" use and purported decryption times. I wonder if a FOIA request would be successful in revealing more details (encryption used, file/OS type, precise amount of time the decryption took) since the FBI is apparently feeling chatty. [...] Khalil Deek, an alleged terrorist arrested in Pakistan in 1999, used encrypted computer files to plot bombings in Jordan at the turn of the millennium, U.S. officials say. Authorities found Deek's computer at his Peshawar, Pakistan, home and flew it to the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Md. Mathematicians, using supercomputers, decoded the files, enabling the FBI to foil the plot. Ramzi Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, used encrypted files to hide details of a plot to destroy 11 U.S. airliners. Philippines officials found the computer in Yousef's Manila apartment in 1995. U.S. officials broke the encryption and foiled the plot. Two of the files, FBI officials say, took more than a year to decrypt.