Why Did Hunter Biden Have DOD Encryption Keys On His Laptop?

AND Magazine ^ | 27 Mar, 2022 | Sam Faddis

[rdcbn1]

I’m obviously talking about encryption keys - not security certificates. They are different things. There have been problems with secure encryption systems. Guess we will have to see what comes up.

[markomalley]

I’m obviously talking about encryption keys - not security certificates.

The article was talking about root certificates:

The keys are known more formally as “root encryption certificates." Some of them appear to have unusually long expiration dates with many lasting twenty years or more. Such keys should not be present on a personal laptop of any kind, and there is no known reason that Hunter Biden would be in possession of them at all.

They are different things.

In terms of PKI, not so much. The root certificates (along with the corresponding certificate revocation list or CRL) provides a chain of trust that assure that an individual host's certificate is valid. (For example, a user for secure email or a website) The host's certificate acts as a public key that, in conjunction with your private key, allows for secure communications. Specifically, an asymmetric link is initially established using these public/private key pairings during which an session symmetric key is passed on that expires at the conclusion of the individual session. (Basic TLS protocol)

There have been problems with secure encryption systems.

Sure. AES-256 is considered the defacto standard for civilian communications, but with the advent of quantum computing, I would think they should probably go to 2048 bit encryption or higher all around. But I doubt that governments would support that as it makes it more difficult for our betters to snoop on our communications. But that only protects data in motion. Considering the crap state of data center protection, there is minimal issue with getting into an enclave and extracting data when it is at rest.

Guess we will have to see what comes up.

Yup. All I'm saying is that this appears to be a shiny object to distract and discredit people wishing to expose the real dangers of what's on the Crackhead's laptop in order to protect the Big Guy.