Bruce Schneier wonders if there is a back door in a NIST/NSA-approved random number generator. This seems like a good market opportunity for Jeff Manber.

I'm well aware of who Bruce Schneier is but this is sort of a non-story, on second thought I think he intended it as such too. Entertaining and funny but more of a curiosity than anything else. Or perhaps not: it could simply be the US government needs to improve its ability to snoop on itself.

Windows? Linux? The OS is unimportant in this regard (not that I would use either for something truly secret or critical) because of the big and important distinction between inherently poor random number generators (usually called PRNGs, P for Pseudo) and high quality randomness sources (usually called "true RNGs"). If you have a good random source hooked up to your computer then you don't need a generator as such since a generator merely tries to simulate a good source (and never ever by definition truly manages).

By the way this is not an opportunity for Yuzoz. Buying randomness from someone else defeats the purpose for anything truly secret rather than merely "obfuscated".

By the way this is not an opportunity for Yuzoz. Buying randomness from someone else defeats the purpose for anything truly secret rather than merely "obfuscated".

Good point. ;-)