CNN.com - Sci-Tech - Report: Bin Laden uses Web...

[Anonymous]

On 02/06/01, Choate wrote:

> http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/02/06/terrorists.internet.ap/index.html

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.