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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

#131

Post by Jarwain »

paganel wrote: post #115
onetimemanytime wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Damn, you'd think that someone at that level would pay for better OPSEC support I think that he thought himself as untouchable and neglected it. Maybe dodged so many bullets over the years. Question for HN: did the FBI break the Signal encryption or just managed to open his device to find all the messages there? Maybe sensitive messages need to be deleted.

> did the FBI break the Signal encryption or just managed to open his device to find all the messages there? Maybe sensitive messages need to be deleted. I’m also interested in the answer to this question. From my layman’s understanding I see Signal as the most secure messaging solution out of the box, followed by WhatsApp but only if (and it’s a very big if) you don’t plan to do something that might raise the intere…

Based on the article it seems like the messages were recovered from the local copy stored in the device. Arguably (at least, this is my understanding of OWS's stance on the issue) Signal only really claims to protect in-transit communications. Once the message reaches the recipient, it is up to that individual to secure the local copies of the messages. Signal does have an option to encrypt the local copies, but FDE is the ideal for that

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

#132

Post by ben1040 »

snthd wrote: post #122
ben1040 wrote: 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.

Media backups are not encrypted, but data is. Backup key security is compromised by usability concerns (the need to restore the backup to a new phone without the old one). https://blog.elcomsoft.com/2018/01/extract-and-decrypt-whats...

Ah, I know WhatsApp warns you about setting up backups that it's not subject to encryption, but I guess I took that to be the entirety and not just media. Which is still a big gap, since in 2018 we share lots of media in chats.

In any case you are right that if you can restore an "encrypted" backup onto a fresh phone without any info from the old one, then all the bits necessary to do are held by parties who can be legally compelled to give them up.

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

#133

Post by tim333 »

jlgaddis wrote: post #48
em3rgent0rdr wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

obligatory: https://xkcd.com/538/

No, it's really not. We've all seen it. Hundreds of times.

It seems to have been referenced 272 times in HN comments and 3 times in story headlines.

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

#134

Post by reitanqild »

ben1040 wrote: post #132
snthd wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Media backups are not encrypted, but data is. Backup key security is compromised by usability concerns (the need to restore the backup to a new phone without the old one). https://blog.elcomsoft.com/2018/01/extract-and-decrypt-whats...

Ah, I know WhatsApp warns you about setting up backups that it's not subject to encryption, but I guess I took that to be the entirety and not just media. Which is still a big gap, since in 2018 we share lots of media in chats. In any case you are right that if you can restore an "encrypted" backup onto a fresh phone without any info from the old one, then all the bits necessary to do are held by parties who can be l…

Last I checked it was really easy to get data out of a WhatsApp backup.

No special skills needed except running locating the file, running a command and connecting using SQLite or something.

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

#136

Post by wpdev_63 »

tptacek wrote: post #73
wpdev_63 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you actually read down to the cellphone section, it says the cia/nsa/fbi have tools to gain access to cellphones remotely. Everything on your phone is up for grabs.

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

#137

Post by scruple »

fapjacks wrote: post #112
scruple wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I had the same reaction. This sort of stuff makes me _feel old_. But I'm not actually "old," so what gives?

That's the trap, and Seneca wrote some compelling stuff about recognizing the trap and avoiding it. It is aptly titled "On the Shortness of Life"...

Thanks for that. I had come across some of Seneca's writing before, while researching / reading about Stoicism, but hadn't come across this specific text, that I recall.

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

#138

Post by rramdin »

los_angeles wrote: post #108
boomboomsubban wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A dominant player, yet Obama needed a special highly modified version to securely access the White House network. A huge amount of work to keep using what he was comfortable with.

Which makes complete sense. He is the most powerful individual in a country of 300+ million people. If he needs a certain thing to keep him operating at peak efficiency and focus, he gets that thing. Period. Unless it violates national security. Being elected president is not the time to learn a new technology suite. Hopefully most presidents have better things to do with their time than that. At that level your peop…

Hopefully your people's people's people don't interpret "setup e-mail for Mrs. Clinton to use on her Blackberry" as "setup an e-mail server on Mrs. Clinton's existing hardware and configure it on her Blackberrry."
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