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EU Commission to staff: Switch to Signal messaging app

politico.eu

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Re: EU Commission to staff: Switch to Signal messaging app

#181

Post by bloopernova »

cpach wrote: post #62
jariel wrote: post #28

The EU budget is 148 Billion Euros. Surely, if they have a requirement for a secure communication app, they have the wherewithal to build one for their needs, that EU citizens and others could then use if they so chose? Essential knowledge is definitely public. This is not about 'Signal' it's about why governments can't/won't deliver on so many issues they themselves deem to be very materially important to them, part…

As a citizen of a EU member state I would rather see them use Signal than try to come up with their own solution. It is true that they could throw a lot of money on the problem. But that in itself does not guarantee that they outcome would be a world-class communication system. So given that Signal already exists and is the gold standard for secure communications, IMHO it’s better to use that. What the EU can do howe…

I'd like to see the EU contribute to the Signal (or Keybase!) ecosystem. A rising tide lifts all boats.

From various comments in this discussion, I've discovered that Signal is open source and has reproducible builds, and the server is open source too. It would be possible for the EU to create its own "EU-Certified" Signal environment for use by people who wish to see their data remain in the EU.

Re: EU Commission to staff: Switch to Signal messaging app

#184

Post by Funes- »

nextstep wrote: post #183
Funes- wrote: post #182

They should use Briar [0], if they want something actually secure: no servers involved whatsoever, tor-enabled, adding contacts works by exchanging private keys, etc. [0] https://briar.app .

Does Briar have an iOS app?

Not yet.

More info: https://code.briarproject.org/briar/briar/wikis/FAQ#will-the....

Re: EU Commission to staff: Switch to Signal messaging app

#186

Post by yardie »

heymijo wrote: post #169
bambataa wrote: post #144

I once worked in the Commission, briefly. Technical security seemed to be non-existent as far as I could tell (in an admittedly very junior role). Once all of the interns got invited to the U.S. embassy to meet the Ambassador (some guy who literally said he got the job because he was friends with Obama). On the way out the nice embassy staff gave us goodie-bags, complete with handy pen drives... Basically everyone wa…

> some guy who literally said he got the job because he was friends with Obama There are two kinds of U.S. ambassadors: 1) Career foreign service people 2) Friends of the presidential administration at the time Examples of the latter aren't hard to find. Off the top of my head I'm familiar with William Timken, a US businessman who was appointed Ambassador to Germany by George W. Bush because he was a huge supporter […

All US ambassadorships are political appointment, therefore option 2 is the only answer. These positions are almost always ceremonial. They are there to execute the will of the president.

The real work is done by the diplomats who are appointed through the US Foreign Service office. They do the actual work of the embassies.

Re: EU Commission to staff: Switch to Signal messaging app

#187

Post by dependenttypes »

tialaramex wrote: post #177
dependenttypes wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> doesn't store data, not even metadata Isn't that just a promise? Also, even then, it is based on your contacts, which are seen by google.

Signal's source code is published so you can go look for yourself. If you believe that despite precautions the source code won't match what actually runs on your phone then realistically you've no real option to use any technological artefact and will be obliged to resort to maybe whispering coded messages to close confidants. As a large technocracy this is not a practical option for the EU. Your phone number is sent…

> so you can go look for yourself

I can look it out for myself but there won't be any point as they can simply run different code on their servers.

> If you believe that despite precautions the source code won't match what actually runs on your phone

On their servers

Also what precautions? As far as I know their binaries are not reproducible.

> this expires if you stop answering PIN questions correctly

After a week if I remember correctly.

> a digest of your contact's phone numbers

> also digested

A hash? This does not protect against anything. There are much less than 2^32 active mobile phone numbers per country. It would be trivial to brute-force it.

> Whether you choose to give your contacts to Google, to Facebook, to Apple or whoever is up to you and outside Signal's control.

The point is that someone* other than you will be able to see the metadata. It does not matter if it is Signal or not.

Re: EU Commission to staff: Switch to Signal messaging app

#188

Post by Seenso »

yardie wrote: post #186
heymijo wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> some guy who literally said he got the job because he was friends with Obama There are two kinds of U.S. ambassadors: 1) Career foreign service people 2) Friends of the presidential administration at the time Examples of the latter aren't hard to find. Off the top of my head I'm familiar with William Timken, a US businessman who was appointed Ambassador to Germany by George W. Bush because he was a huge supporter […

All US ambassadorships are political appointment, therefore option 2 is the only answer. These positions are almost always ceremonial. They are there to execute the will of the president. The real work is done by the diplomats who are appointed through the US Foreign Service office. They do the actual work of the embassies.

> All US ambassadorships are political appointment, therefore option 2 is the only answer. These positions are almost always ceremonial. They are there to execute the will of the president.

Not really, a foreign service officer can be appointed by a president to be an ambassador. A recent example from the news is Marie Yovanovitch. In regular times, my impression was that foreign service officers were appointed to the more difficult and critical ambassadorships (e.g. Ambassador to the USSR), and friends of the president were appointed to "easy" ambassadorships (e.g. to a staunch ally with a fashionable capital).

Re: EU Commission to staff: Switch to Signal messaging app

#189

Post by Avamander »

minusf wrote: post #110
mcv wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Dutch government is also often terrible at managing IT projects. It seems an industry has evolved to game the public procurement rules required by the EU. Those companies just leech money for never-ending IT projects that tend to be over budget, over time, and working poorly.

at least the Dutch sites work. try a post communist country gov site and you'll start appreciating it right away.

Have you ever used Estonia's?

Re: EU Commission to staff: Switch to Signal messaging app

#190

Post by blub »

throwaway47748 wrote: post #150
bambataa wrote: post #144

I once worked in the Commission, briefly. Technical security seemed to be non-existent as far as I could tell (in an admittedly very junior role). Once all of the interns got invited to the U.S. embassy to meet the Ambassador (some guy who literally said he got the job because he was friends with Obama). On the way out the nice embassy staff gave us goodie-bags, complete with handy pen drives... Basically everyone wa…

And I work at a European cybersecurity company and we are routinely tasked to inspect USB drives and devices EU politicians receive at conferences, so I guess we've come full circle. I'm sure the NSA has implants in the EU systems but they're not dumb enough to just hand them out on USB drives that can be traced back to them.

What kind of tools do you use for that? Would they catch BadUSB-like malware?
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