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The Next Front in the New Crypto Wars: WhatsApp

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Re: The Next Front in the New Crypto Wars: WhatsApp

#3

Post by CiPHPerCoder »

throwaway0209 wrote: post #2

Here the local drug dealers encourage use of a app called Wickr. Does anyone know how the encryption compares to WhatsApp?

https://github.com/nylira/prism-break/issues/249#issuecommen...

https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/32hexp/a_secret_...

Don't use Wickr.

Proprietary crypto + an interesting target for NSA because of its popularity among ISIS = probably snake oil and at the very least makes you a target

"Career criminals recommend it" isn't a good indicator of security. Two things to consider:

1. Confidential informants exist

2. Being a high-risk individual doesn't make you a domain expert

Ask your drug dealers to explain why RSA encryption with PKCS1v1.5 padding is bad. If they can't, disregard their opinion on cryptography and privacy technology.

Re: The Next Front in the New Crypto Wars: WhatsApp

#4

Post by fweespee_ch »

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/us/politics/whatsapp-encry...

> The Justice Department and WhatsApp declined to comment. The government officials and others who discussed the dispute did so on condition of anonymity because the wiretap order and all the information associated with it were under seal. The nature of the case was not clear, except that officials said it was not a terrorism investigation. The location of the investigation was also unclear.

Just in case anyone was wondering if this was terrorism related, it is not. I suppose next is OpenWhisperSystems / Signal, etc.

I'm glad I've stuck with GnuPG for anything truly sensitive.

Re: The Next Front in the New Crypto Wars: WhatsApp

#5

Post by jessegreathouse »

If the government wins any of these court battles, it's only a matter of time until one-way encryption is outlawed. It follows logically that if criminals/terrorists can't use iPhones to securely communicate, then they'll just move on to the next convenient encryption app. The government will continue to order companies to break their one-way encryption until the government realizes they're playing musical chairs and then they'll issue an executive order to ban one-way encryption outright. The precedent allowing them to do so, will be all of these initial court battles vs Apple, whatsapp, and whoever else gets defeated. In the wake of these events regular people, like you and me, will be harmed by hackers and commercial companies exploiting this new world without one-way encryption.

Re: The Next Front in the New Crypto Wars: WhatsApp

#6

Post by schoen »

jessegreathouse wrote: post #5

If the government wins any of these court battles, it's only a matter of time until one-way encryption is outlawed. It follows logically that if criminals/terrorists can't use iPhones to securely communicate, then they'll just move on to the next convenient encryption app. The government will continue to order companies to break their one-way encryption until the government realizes they're playing musical chairs and…

I don't recognize your use of "one-way encryption". Did you mean something like end-to-end encryption?

Re: The Next Front in the New Crypto Wars: WhatsApp

#8

Post by thavalai »

schoen wrote: post #6
jessegreathouse wrote: post #5

If the government wins any of these court battles, it's only a matter of time until one-way encryption is outlawed. It follows logically that if criminals/terrorists can't use iPhones to securely communicate, then they'll just move on to the next convenient encryption app. The government will continue to order companies to break their one-way encryption until the government realizes they're playing musical chairs and…

I don't recognize your use of "one-way encryption". Did you mean something like end-to-end encryption?

Looks like it means that the encryption cannot be reverse-engineered: http://help.penzu.com/pro/what-is-one-way-encryption/

Re: The Next Front in the New Crypto Wars: WhatsApp

#9

Post by CyberDildonics »

thavalai wrote: post #8
schoen wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't recognize your use of "one-way encryption". Did you mean something like end-to-end encryption?

Looks like it means that the encryption cannot be reverse-engineered: http://help.penzu.com/pro/what-is-one-way-encryption/

I thought that was just called encryption.

Re: The Next Front in the New Crypto Wars: WhatsApp

#10

Post by yazaddaruvala »

jessegreathouse wrote: post #5

If the government wins any of these court battles, it's only a matter of time until one-way encryption is outlawed. It follows logically that if criminals/terrorists can't use iPhones to securely communicate, then they'll just move on to the next convenient encryption app. The government will continue to order companies to break their one-way encryption until the government realizes they're playing musical chairs and…

Anyone have any insights into why the commonly used guns argument is not good enough for encryption? If we ban guns(encryption), only the criminals will have it.

The only thing I can think of is that the majority of people who advocate for encryption are anti-gun, and don't want to give strength to that argument?

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