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The NSA did not shape encryption in only one direction. This entry traces how the agency helped build modern secure communications, influenced DES, DSS, Clipper, AES, Suite B, and CNSA, and then reshaped public trust through the Dual_EC and BULLRUN era.
NSA-approved encryption has never meant just one thing. At different times it has meant federally standardized encryption, export-licensed commercial encryption, escrow-enabled government access, and high-assurance algorithms approved for national security systems. This entry explains why those meanings kept colliding with privacy.
BULLRUN was one of the most consequential partially exposed programs in modern SIGINT history. This entry traces how the NSA and its British counterpart sought to preserve intelligence access in an age of expanding internet encryption, why the program was so secret, and how its public exposure reshaped trust in standards, products, and the wider security ecosystem.
Dual_EC_DRBG was not just a flawed random number generator. It became the clearest public case in which NSA influence over cryptographic standards, vendor defaults, and trust in public security guidance collided in a lasting scandal.