NIST denies NSA tampering with encryption standards

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has vigorously denied that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) tampered with NIST's process of vetting and choosing encryption algorithms.

"NIST would not deliberately weaken a cryptographic standard," NIST said in a statement Tuesday. "We will continue in our mission to work with the cryptographic community to create the strongest possible encryption standards for the U.S. government and industry at large."

The statement was issued five days after The New York Times accused the NSA of circumnavigating the NIST-approved encryption algorithms used to secure electronic communications, either by introducing virtually undetectable back doors in the algorithms or by subverting the public development process to weaken new encryption algorithms and supporting technologies.