RSA denial sidesteps claim it was paid to use compromised encryption by default

Security firm RSA has denied it entered into a contract that it knew would give the NSA a backdoor into its BSAFE security system. Last week,it was claimed that the NSA paid RSA $10 million to make an algorithm called “Dual EC DRBG” the preferred, or default system in BSAFE. The security giant says that, although it has worked with the NSA, the relationship has never been a secret, and the relationship has been with the “explicit goal” of strengthening security.

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) paid $10 million to vendor RSA in a “secret” deal to incorporate a deliberately flawed encryption algorithm into widely used security software, according to a Reuters report that is reigniting controversy about the government’s involvement in setting security standards.