The NSA was one of the first organizations to describe a Bitcoin-like system. cryptography mailing list, a group of NSA information security researchers published a paper entitled How to Make a Mint: the Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash in two prominent places, the first being an MIT mailing list and the second being much more prominent, The American Law Review (Vol.46, Issue 4 ).The paper outlines a system very much like Bitcoin in which secure financial transactions are possible through the use of a decentralized network the researchers refer informally to as a Bank.They list four things as indispensable in their proposed network: privacy, user identification (protection against impersonation), message integrity (protection against tampering/substitution of transaction information – that is, protection against double-spending), and nonrepudiation (protection against later denial of a transaction – a blockchain!).“We will assume throughout the remainder of this paper that some authentication infrastructure is in place, providing the four security features.” (Section 1.2) It is evident that SHA-256, the algorithm Satoshi used to secure Bitcoin, was not available because it came about in 2001.

However, SHA-1 would have been available to them, having been published in 1993.Also read: The Extropian Roots of Bitcoin The paper refers to David Chaum, whom Bitcoin aficionados know to be one of the earliest proponents of anonymous digital financial transactions.Chaum developed ecash way back in 1983, long before the large scale propagation of the world wide web.Chaum was a proponent of anonymity in transactions, with the express demand that banks and governments would have no way of knowing who had purchased what.litecoin dollar valueSo it is important to recognize that when we say “user identification,” we are not talking about user “accounts,” as the credit card industry has, but rather about the ability to digitally sign, verifying that the account is owned by the person who says it is owned by them.current bitcoin price aud

This implies the ability for a transactor to know for sure that they are sending the money to the right place in the midst of a given transaction.“…it is necessary that the Bank [network] not be able to link a specific withdrawal with a specific deposit.” (Section 2.3) The paper alternatively refers to the currency outlined as “coins” and “tokens.” Overall, it makes for a legitimate precursor to our beloved Bitcoin, which utilized SHA-256 and was released by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto.bitcoin joint statementCould Nakamoto actually have been an NSA researcher or retired NSA researcher realizing an earlier aspiration?bitcoin echt geldIs he Laurie Law, Susan Sabett, or Jerry Solinas?ethereal capture setupOr would that be too easy?bitcoin brick and mortar

Certainly information security and the National Security Agency are intertwined.The NSA regularly publishes new stable and experimental algorithms.It is up to the public how we implement and use them.Those who value their privacy know never to put anything on a computer which they wouldn’t want to make it into the hands of someone else.It’s just common sense.You can achieve a degree of security through the use of cryptographic protocols, but nothing is ever permanently safe from prying eyes on-line.declaring bitcoin incomeIf it comes out that the NSA has been behind Bitcoin all along, does that change its value?bitcoin amsterdam officeAfter all, the NSA is the biggest snoop in town these days, keeping massive logs of metadata on phone calls with many speculating that they are doing a little more than that even.earn bitcoin lottery

That they are keeping the contents of the phone calls as well.And as for secure e-mail: PGP was declared dead almost a year ago.What do you think?Is Satoshi in fact an NSA agent?What does this imply for the sanctity of Bitcoin?Does this prospect comfort or discomfort you?Images from Pixabay and Shutterstock.Final update UK hospitals have effectively shut down and are turning away non-emergency patients after ransomware ransacked its networks.Some 16 NHS organizations across Blighty – including several hospital trusts such as NHS Mid-Essex CCG and East and North Hertfordshire – have had their files scrambled by a variant of the WannaCrypt, aka WanaCrypt aka Wcry, nasty.Users are told to cough up $300 in Bitcoin to restore their documents.Doctors have been reduced to using pen and paper, and closing A&E to non-critical patients, amid the tech blackout.Ambulances have been redirected to other hospitals, and operations canceled.It is understood WannaCrypt, which is raiding companies and organizations across the planet today, is being spread by a worm that exploits unpatched vulnerabilities in Windows machines – particularly MS17-010, an SMB bug attacked by the leaked NSA tool, EternalBlue.

The security hole has been patched for modern Windows versions, but not WindowsXP – and the NHS is a massive user of the legacy operating system.A spokesperson for NHS Digital said: "We're aware that a number of trusts that have reported potential issues to the CareCERT team.We believe it to be ransomware."/zIAJ6wbAG5 — Lawrence Dunhill (@LawrenceDunhill) May 12, 2017 We're aware of an IT issue affecting NHS computer systems.Please do not attend A&E unless it's an emergency.Thank you for your patience.— NHS Mid Essex CCG (@MidEssexCCG) May 12, 2017 East and North Hertfordshire NHS confirmed in a press statement: "Today, the trust has experienced a major IT problem, believed to be caused by a cyber attack.Immediately on discovery of the problem, the trust acted to protect its IT systems by shutting them down; it also meant that the trust's telephone system is not able to accept incoming calls."The trust is postponing all non-urgent activity for today and is asking people not to come to A&E – please ring NHS111 for urgent medical advice or 999 if it is a life-threatening emergency."

It said the trust's IT specialists were working to clean up the mess."I'm led believe that there is a major attack underway on the NHS with systems down nationwide," one reader told us."My wife is a GP and their systems were just shut down and they were told it was because of a 'National hack of the computer health care system'."Payments appear to be being made to the Bitcoin addresses given in the NHS ransomware attack – which in turn confirms that the same strain of malware has infected Telefónica Spain, Gareth Corfield reports.There are at least two addresses visible in screenshots of the malware reported by British sources.One of those addresses, 115p7UMMngoj1pMvkpHijcRdfJNXj6LrLn, is visible in BBC tech editor Rory Cellan-Jones' tweet of a London GP's view of the malware: /lV8zXarAXS — Rory Cellan-Jones (@ruskin147) May 12, 2017 This same address is seen on computer screens in Spain and other countries hit by the WannaCrypt variant.A payment of 0.15 Bitcoin – worth roughly $266 dollars at the time of writing – was made to that address two hours ago, as the Blockchain tracker shows.

It is not possible to say who paid this amount.The NHS attackers are asking for $300 worth of Bitcoin in ransom payments.NHS Digital confirmed a number of organisations have reported they have suffered a ransomware attack which is affecting a number of different organisations.It said: "The investigation is at an early stage but we believe the malware variant is Wanna Decryptor.At this stage we do not have any evidence that patient data has been accessed.We will continue to work with affected organisations to confirm this.NHS Digital is working closely with the National Cyber Security Centre, the Department of Health and NHS England to support affected organisations and to recommend appropriate mitigations.This attack was not specifically targeted at the NHS and is affecting organisations from across a range of sectors."Our focus is on supporting organisations to manage the incident swiftly and decisively, but we will continue to communicate with NHS colleagues and will share more information as it becomes available."