Live data from Hacker News

WhatsApp banned on House staffers' devices

axios.com

71–80 of 161 posts

Re: WhatsApp banned on House staffers' devices

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

See https://archive.ph/oXYXe for more info about TeleMessage version of Signal approved for use by government offices.

Are "paid for" and "properly approved for classified information" being conflated here? I may have missed something.

Re: WhatsApp banned on House staffers' devices

#73
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That wasn't signal's fault. They accidentally invited a journalist to the chat.

While it is correct that this was a PEBKAC error rather than Signal's error, I would like to suggest that, in general, all mobile phone apps are poor choices for anything as sensitive as planning a missile strike.

I think one could design a procedure involving a mobile phone and Signal that would be reasonably secure for that kind of use case. The number one point on that procedure would be that the phone in question isn't used for anything other than secure communication.

Of course, the US government already has approved procedures and devices for secure communication, so senior official making up their own is reckless and unprofessional.

Re: WhatsApp banned on House staffers' devices

#74
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't mean that MS Teams is safer, it means that the government has tighter control on MS Teams. Or maybe that Microsoft pays more than Meta.

MS products allow you to store data locally without any egress, so an IT team has access to it. This is the sticking point, because WhatsApp has now integrated Meta AI into the app, but (obviously) do not provide an on-prem data store. This is why Deepseek AI (the Deepseek app) and ChatGPT (the OpenAI app) are barred as well. Data Stewardship and Zero Trust has been an internal initiative in the House for a couple ye…

Isn't deepseek 100% open source?

Re: WhatsApp banned on House staffers' devices

#75

When I was at unnamed major financial institution, we were ordered to stop using WhatsApp, but it had nothing to do with security and everything to do with avoiding even the possibility of the appearance of backroom dealing or production avoidance in the event of subpoena. Maybe the truth has more to do with that, or maybe not, what do I know, who are all you people anyway, and why am I posting here?

WhatsApp also feels... tonally weird to use at a serious company, like in the same way it would feel weird to be using snapchat for team meetings.

i feel the same way about so many government departments switching to X as a primary public communications platform instead of... you know, the open web (with distribution to downstream closed platforms), as they always have. it just reeks of unseriousness.

Re: WhatsApp banned on House staffers' devices

#76
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MS products allow you to store data locally without any egress, so an IT team has access to it. This is the sticking point, because WhatsApp has now integrated Meta AI into the app, but (obviously) do not provide an on-prem data store. This is why Deepseek AI (the Deepseek app) and ChatGPT (the OpenAI app) are barred as well. Data Stewardship and Zero Trust has been an internal initiative in the House for a couple ye…

Isn't deepseek 100% open source?

The model weights themselves are, but there's also the hosted SaaS.

Re: WhatsApp banned on House staffers' devices

#77

When I was at unnamed major financial institution, we were ordered to stop using WhatsApp, but it had nothing to do with security and everything to do with avoiding even the possibility of the appearance of backroom dealing or production avoidance in the event of subpoena. Maybe the truth has more to do with that, or maybe not, what do I know, who are all you people anyway, and why am I posting here?

i heard (anecdotally) that wall street used to run on Yahoo IM - fascinating. do you know if that extended into your previous employer?

Re: WhatsApp banned on House staffers' devices

#78
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MS products allow you to store data locally without any egress, so an IT team has access to it. This is the sticking point, because WhatsApp has now integrated Meta AI into the app, but (obviously) do not provide an on-prem data store. This is why Deepseek AI (the Deepseek app) and ChatGPT (the OpenAI app) are barred as well. Data Stewardship and Zero Trust has been an internal initiative in the House for a couple ye…

Isn't deepseek 100% open source?

Deepseek the model sure. Not Deepseek AI - the app [0] published by Hangzhou DeepSeek (the company that developed DeepSeek)

[0] - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/deepseek-ai-assistant/id673759...

Re: WhatsApp banned on House staffers' devices

#79
post #72
post #62

[flagged]

I ban Whatsapp but require Teams on company devices. Can you explain why the thinking is wrong?

This is very reasonable if you have compliance needs or similar. That’s not what this office is saying - it’s saying teams is more secure. This is wrong. The nature of banning private messaging apps is trading security for legibility. If this office is interested in that (which it’s not - it allows Signal), they should say so.

Re: WhatsApp banned on House staffers' devices

#80
post #12

Government: Zuck put a backdoor in WhatsApp or we will put you in a blacksite UFC ring and beat you up. Also Government: WhatsApp has a backdoor. Don't use it.

The Government is made up of a huge number of organizations with competing goals, budgets, capabilities, and interests.

[dead]
Post reply on HN