101–110 of 334 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Especially C code Isn't WhatsApp an Erlang app?
Whatsapp is both a server and a client. The server might be written in Erlang, but the client (where all the end-to-end encryption happens) is written in whatever the device can run.
At the risk of stating the obvious: there is real benefit to using an entirely decentralised open source comms system like Riot.im (Matrix) or Conversations (XMPP), where you can pick precisely which app to run, who to trust to build that app, who to trust to advertise your public keys, and who to host your server. It's inevitable that big centralised services like WhatsApp or even Signal are going to be under pressu…
oh, and one other thing - there's also real value to independently published public security audits of the crypto to pick up on things like WhatsApp's retransmission 'bug', at least as of a given snapshot of the codebase. E.g. https://www.nccgroup.trust/us/our-research/matrix-olm-crypto... for Matrix or https://conversations.im/omemo/audit.pdf for OMEMO & Conversations.
I can't easily even see a hash of my key, how do I know it has or hasn't changed? It's pretty easy to have a feature that only shows some of the keys changes and not all of them.
Well, I kind of feel that I have to repost my comment on this old thread[1] with regards to the government of Egypt blocking Signal application: "Isn't it "weird" that they chose to block Signal app and not the signal-protocol based Whatsapp? If Whatsapp really implements the same kind of security and privacy measures that Signal does, why is Whatsapp allowed to continue operating? If signal is preventing them spy on…
Good point, but there is an explanation: blocking WhatsApp would lead to more intense backlash. See what happened in Brazil. Not to say it isn't both, but the price of blocking (one of) the most popular messaging apps is higher to a government than blocking one in the low low percentiles of usage.
If they blocked Signal just because it was less of a trouble to block compared to WhatsApp, then all the people that were on Signal will easily switch to WhatsApp... What you have at this point, is a government paying the price of blocking a less popular messaging app they cannot control, while the people they are after can just switch to a MASSIVELY used messaging app the gov can also not control and additionally, is too expensive to block.
If this was the case,it would actually work against the gov. Do not underestimate gov authorities, they are not THAT naive. If they had not blocked Signal at all, they could at least track Signal users and at least have that information: that this small group of people (Signal users), contains the group of people they are after. They could have their honey pot there. Mixing the "dangerous" Signal userbase with the chaotic massive userbase of WhatsApp makes no sense, unless you really have WhatsApp on your side.
I hope you understand what I am trying to say.
edit: rephrasing
Well, I kind of feel that I have to repost my comment on this old thread[1] with regards to the government of Egypt blocking Signal application: "Isn't it "weird" that they chose to block Signal app and not the signal-protocol based Whatsapp? If Whatsapp really implements the same kind of security and privacy measures that Signal does, why is Whatsapp allowed to continue operating? If signal is preventing them spy on…
It is more likely that the cost of blocking Signal was negligible in contrast to the benefit, while blocking WhatsApp would likely have huge cost - especially in a country that has only recently experienced a number of citizen-driven coupés.
It is also possible that they're specifically targeting a group (Muslim Brotherhood, or Jund al Islam and other Sinai insurgency groups) that utilize Signal.
No matter what IM service you use: As long as they manage the public keys for their users, they will be vulnerable to exactly this problem. This isn't just WhatsApp. This applies to iMessage and Signal too. In all cases, we rely on the word of the service provider that they don't sneak additional public keys to encrypt for into the clients and in all cases we hear that doing so would cause a message dialog to appear,…
On the other hand, as long as users are required to manage their public keys, there won't be end-to-end encryption for the masses (which WhatsApp had declared as their goal and to some degree achieved).
At least until key management and other security basics will be taught at elementary school, by the time multiplication table is taught.
"Asked to comment specifically on whether Facebook/WhatApp had accessed users’ messages and whether it had done so at the request of government agencies or other third parties, it directed the Guardian to its site that details aggregate data on government requests by country." This is why people should try and use Signal instead of WhatsApp. You can't trust Facebook to care about your privacy.
Well, I kind of feel that I have to repost my comment on this old thread[1] with regards to the government of Egypt blocking Signal application: "Isn't it "weird" that they chose to block Signal app and not the signal-protocol based Whatsapp? If Whatsapp really implements the same kind of security and privacy measures that Signal does, why is Whatsapp allowed to continue operating? If signal is preventing them spy on…
There's a cost/benefit tradeoff to blocking each service and different governments have different thresholds. It is more likely that the cost of blocking Signal was negligible in contrast to the benefit, while blocking WhatsApp would likely have huge cost - especially in a country that has only recently experienced a number of citizen-driven coupés. It is also possible that they're specifically targeting a group (Mus…
Well, I kind of feel that I have to repost my comment on this old thread[1] with regards to the government of Egypt blocking Signal application: "Isn't it "weird" that they chose to block Signal app and not the signal-protocol based Whatsapp? If Whatsapp really implements the same kind of security and privacy measures that Signal does, why is Whatsapp allowed to continue operating? If signal is preventing them spy on…
This is a nice idea, but it's also baseless speculation. You're implying that WhatsApp, Inc. gave the Egyptian government the ability to remotely retrigger this backdoor whenever they want to (for those who haven't actually read the article: this backdoor only works when WhatsApp issues a key change for a conversation, and only then in certain circumstances). In other words, you imply that Egypt said "Hey WhatsApp, p…