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FBI Recovers WhatsApp, Signal Data Stored on Michael Cohen’s BlackBerry

arstechnica.com

61–70 of 138 posts

Re: FBI Recovers WhatsApp, Signal Data Stored on Michael Cohen’s BlackBerry

#61
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Encryption in transit doesn't imply encryption at rest. For instance, WhatsApp on Android will happily back up to Google Drive, if you allow it, and it does so in cleartext.

Nothing on Google Drive is stored "in clear text".

Unless you control the encryption keys in the communication, always assume it's accessible in plaintext.

Re: FBI Recovers WhatsApp, Signal Data Stored on Michael Cohen’s BlackBerry

#62
post #47

Damn, you'd think that someone at that level would pay for better OPSEC support. But then, I guess that I'm not surprised. Blackberry does have a reputation, not at all deserved at this point. I'm pretty sure that the President's phone is just as poorly secured. Probably less, from what I've read.

Just a question. Who would they pay? I know a few people I might pay for that but only incidentally & I’ve worked in tech. for 20 years. Where would an average though maybe high priced attorney go to get advice other than “use signal & WhatsApp” if they knew they needed protection from a federal investigation?

Probably at least 20% of HN users, no?

Edit: So are y'all dumping on me because my 20% estimate is too high, or too low?

Re: FBI Recovers WhatsApp, Signal Data Stored on Michael Cohen’s BlackBerry

#63
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a question. Who would they pay? I know a few people I might pay for that but only incidentally & I’ve worked in tech. for 20 years. Where would an average though maybe high priced attorney go to get advice other than “use signal & WhatsApp” if they knew they needed protection from a federal investigation?

Probably at least 20% of HN users, no? Edit: So are y'all dumping on me because my 20% estimate is too high, or too low?

Okay so your answer is...

Re: FBI Recovers WhatsApp, Signal Data Stored on Michael Cohen’s BlackBerry

#64

Trump is in trouble now. EDIT: It is suspected that Michael Cohen, being a long time Trump friend and personal lawyer, is familiar with Trump's money laundering. If Michael Cohen believes he's at risk of being sent to jail for many years, he might collaborate with the FBI.

[flagged]

Re: FBI Recovers WhatsApp, Signal Data Stored on Michael Cohen’s BlackBerry

#65

Trump is in trouble now. EDIT: It is suspected that Michael Cohen, being a long time Trump friend and personal lawyer, is familiar with Trump's money laundering. If Michael Cohen believes he's at risk of being sent to jail for many years, he might collaborate with the FBI.

[flagged]

Re: FBI Recovers WhatsApp, Signal Data Stored on Michael Cohen’s BlackBerry

#66

It says that they have "731 pages of encrypted data" but nowhere does it say that they managed to decrypt the data, and read the plain text. It states that they did not disclose what was in the "encrypted data" so... there's no indication or assurance that they've managed to access the plain text.

Why on earth would those fools print it all out?

Hard copy for future reference, in case some sort of vulnerability becomes exploitable at a later date.

Also, to provide a vague, yet seemingly impressive metric, true to form for federal government employees, because it seems official to the non-technical layman.

If you were to declare a metric such as 900KB of encyphered base64, well, gee, that's like, almost nothing. But print it out, and non-expert jurors start thinking "Well, gee! 700 pages is longer than that Stephen King book that I just read!"

And anyway, they wouldn't have to print it out, to obtain a quotable metric. All they'd have to do is paste it into an evidence template, and prep it in a printable format, like a DOCX file or a PDF. Then, they can subpoena for the metadata, and at least maybe infer a relationship between entities, even if they are denied awareness of the nature of the conversations etween them.

Seriously, this is how government officials and lawyers tend to think.

Re: FBI Recovers WhatsApp, Signal Data Stored on Michael Cohen’s BlackBerry

#67
post #47

Damn, you'd think that someone at that level would pay for better OPSEC support. But then, I guess that I'm not surprised. Blackberry does have a reputation, not at all deserved at this point. I'm pretty sure that the President's phone is just as poorly secured. Probably less, from what I've read.

Just a question. Who would they pay? I know a few people I might pay for that but only incidentally & I’ve worked in tech. for 20 years. Where would an average though maybe high priced attorney go to get advice other than “use signal & WhatsApp” if they knew they needed protection from a federal investigation?

Well the Russians are pretty good with computers. I mention this only half-facetiously.

Re: FBI Recovers WhatsApp, Signal Data Stored on Michael Cohen’s BlackBerry

#68
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn't you be able to?

BB used to run a custom QNX-based OS, not Android.

WhatApp ran on Nokia's S60 platform, which is for feature-phones. Making a QNX version was probably much less of challenge.

Re: FBI Recovers WhatsApp, Signal Data Stored on Michael Cohen’s BlackBerry

#69
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably at least 20% of HN users, no? Edit: So are y'all dumping on me because my 20% estimate is too high, or too low?

Okay so your answer is...

There are many security researchers who could do that.

Even I know the basic issues to address, even if I don't know all of the implementation specifics.

Re: FBI Recovers WhatsApp, Signal Data Stored on Michael Cohen’s BlackBerry

#70
post #47

Damn, you'd think that someone at that level would pay for better OPSEC support. But then, I guess that I'm not surprised. Blackberry does have a reputation, not at all deserved at this point. I'm pretty sure that the President's phone is just as poorly secured. Probably less, from what I've read.

> Damn, you'd think that someone at that level would pay for better OPSEC support.

Cohen (and the whole Trump circle) went from operating at one level to a much higher level fairly quickly.

Also, there's a “you don't know what it is that you don't know” issue involved.

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