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

arstechnica.com

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

#71

Post by boomboomsubban »

mirimir wrote: 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.

This issue is huge in politics. The entire Clinton personal e-mail scandal was essentially her unwilling to give up her BlackBerry, something Obama was unwilling to give up too. These people learned how to use some technology decades ago, and will continue using it no matter what other issues it causes.

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

#72

Post by lamarpye »

xamarinthrw wrote: post #65
fwdpropaganda wrote: post #2

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]

The IG report wasn't on Russian collusion, it was on the Clinton email investigation.

The IG will also be looking at abuse of the FISA process: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/department-of-justice-inspector...

Hopefully the government had a good reason for spying on Carter Page

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

#73

Post by tptacek »

wpdev_63 wrote: post #28
MilnerRoute wrote: post #11

Manfort [not Cohen, as I originally wrote, but Manafort] had his message stored on iCloud. That turned out to be part of how the FBI was able to recover them so easily. https://gizmodo.com/paul-manafort-learns-that-encrypting-mes...

Well I am not sure about blackberry but android and ios are fully compromised[0]. 0: https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/ ?

This link doesn't say anything remotely like that.

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

#74

Post by newscracker »

justboxing wrote: post #6

> The letter to Judge Kimba Wood stated that "the Government was advised that the FBI’s original electronic extraction of data from telephones did not capture content related to encrypted messaging applications, such as WhatsApp and Signal... The FBI has now obtained this material." I don't get this. How could you possibly decrypt encrypted messages without WhatsApp or Signal's assistance? Isn't the whole point of en…

They probably decrypted it on the device through some brute force methods. This may be easy or difficult depending on the passcode/PIN used by the user on the device. This is a weak point from the user's side. They may have also obtained this from backups elsewhere that weren't encrypted or strongly encrypted.

There is no indication that they decrypted anything by breaking into the end-to-end transport/network encryption used by these apps.

P.S.: Your honest question (which wasn't snarky) was downvoted by some people for reasons I don't understand. Upvoted in an attempt to compensate. Such questions and responses can help more people learn about encryption and the protections necessary at different stages/layers.

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

#75

Post by [deleted] »

fwdpropaganda wrote: post #17
civilitty wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of trouble. A Ukrainian national said in an interview that he testified in front of a grand jury convened by the Mueller investigation last Friday. He said that the prosecutor's questions focused on Cohen so he is about to be squeezed from both sides and his family is now selling several multimillion dollar apartments (including his in-laws), supposedly to cover legal bills. His current legal team will cease al…

Trump Campaign to Discredit Michael Cohen is Underway https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f-NToq6NW8

[deleted]

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

#76

Post by aerotwelve »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #71
mirimir wrote: 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.

This issue is huge in politics. The entire Clinton personal e-mail scandal was essentially her unwilling to give up her BlackBerry, something Obama was unwilling to give up too. These people learned how to use some technology decades ago, and will continue using it no matter what other issues it causes.

Fwiw - Obama didn't use an off-the-shelf blackberry; he used one that was modified such that it complied w/ with government security standards.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/22/technology/security/nsa-obam...

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

#77

Post by zacharycohn »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #71
mirimir wrote: 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.

This issue is huge in politics. The entire Clinton personal e-mail scandal was essentially her unwilling to give up her BlackBerry, something Obama was unwilling to give up too. These people learned how to use some technology decades ago, and will continue using it no matter what other issues it causes.

Check your timelines. Obama was elected in 2008, and BlackBerry was the dominant player in the market at that point.

Also, he DID swap out his phone for a secured one, and his staff instituted a number of security protocols to keep it secure.

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

#78

Post by sctb »

xamarinthrw wrote: post #65
fwdpropaganda wrote: post #2

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]

Please post civilly and substantively or not at all.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#79

Post by michaelchisari »

gpm wrote: post #51

Signal encryption relies on a password (last I used it, which was a long time ago). Typing long random passwords in a phone is nothing if not impractical. It wouldn't shock me to find out they just brute forced the password.

Or found a sticky with the password on it when they raided his office.

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

#80

Post by warent »

zacharycohn wrote: post #77
boomboomsubban wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This issue is huge in politics. The entire Clinton personal e-mail scandal was essentially her unwilling to give up her BlackBerry, something Obama was unwilling to give up too. These people learned how to use some technology decades ago, and will continue using it no matter what other issues it causes.

Check your timelines. Obama was elected in 2008, and BlackBerry was the dominant player in the market at that point. Also, he DID swap out his phone for a secured one, and his staff instituted a number of security protocols to keep it secure.

As an aside: wow that timeline makes me feel really old
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