Documents reveal NSA attempts at defeating web encryption for 'snoop-ops'

Security analysts have reportedly claimed that as per the secret documents revealed by Edward Snowden, the US' National Security Agency is quietly attempting at exploiting the web encryption in order to have wider access to online content for surveillance.

Encryption is a technology that scrambles digital documents and emails according to a mathematical formula or algorithm, and the latest revelation has questioned the security of online financial transactions.

According to the Washington Times, the documents reveal that the agency along with its UK counterpart GCHQ, used financial incentives, 'back doors', secret courts and outright theft to acquire the digital 'keys' to widely used commercial encryption technologies, apart from inserting vulnerabilities in encryption standards to gain access.

However, defending the methods, director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper said that the NSA would not be doing its job, if it didn't try to defeat encryption, because it is used routinely by spies, terrorists and other malefactors.

The documents further reveal that the NSA makes cryptographic modifications to commercial or indigenous cryptographic information security devices or systems so they can be subject to eavesdropping.

One privacy online advocate, Kevin Bankston said that the encryption revelations highlight the problem of having information assurance and signals intelligence under the same roof.

Cryptologists believe the effort to subvert encryption and other means to achieve anonymity, privacy and security on the Internet also makes the US and the rest of the world less safe online, the report added.