"Encrypted no longer means encrypted? Are messaging apps secure anymore?"
Were they ever secure? The feds seem to have no problem getting messages sent through Signal and Telegram. I was under the impression that they were super secure, uncrackable communications.
How is the FBI getting these messages from Manafort, Cohen, etc?
13. "^pretty clear they have access to the device the msgs are stored on" In response to Reply # 1
or the device the messages were sent to and then stored on (in the case of manafort and the journalists) or icloud backups (also in the case of manafort).
basically people using these apps are just focusing on the safeguards to information being intercepted during transit. they arent accounting for people gaining access to their device (not deleting the messages and any backups of the messages).
**************** TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*
5. "More likely ... the idiots involved kept saving shit" In response to Reply # 0
Encryption isn’t fool proof The government does run foul often But if there’s one thing above all else with this is that these jamokes involved are flagrant AND dumb
------ “There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus
stravinskian Member since Feb 24th 2003 12698 posts
Fri Jun-15-18 03:32 PM
6. "There have been some scandals recently," In response to Reply # 0 Fri Jun-15-18 03:34 PM by stravinskian
where NSA entered into "research collaborations" with NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology), creating new state-of-the-art random number generators, which are essential for most encryption schemes. The scandal was that NSA inserted certain non-random behaviors that could be used to create backdoors in the encryptions, if you know about them.
This was a few years ago, though, and I assume everyone's moved on from it. That said, it was a surprising demonstration of just how far NSA would go to break encryption.
But I concur with everyone else in here: the much easier way to capture encrypted messages is to unlock the phone that sent or received them. For that, I assume it's mostly just standard jailbreaking tricks.
18. "Remember browsers being forced to have export grade crypto?" In response to Reply # 6
This came back to bite us in the butt through SSL downgrade attacks. We'll be looking at the same sort of things happening if the NSA's monkeying around with ECC is true....hell, these guys can't even control their own tools (see: Shadow Brokers)
~~~~~~~~ A bad Samaritan averaging above average men (c) DOOM
7. "So, encrypted messages *are* secure." In response to Reply # 0
but the devices you use to send and receive them are not.
so if the FBI or whoever gets your phone, or the phone of the person you're talking to, and the messages are there....guess what your encrypted messages are now unencrypted messages.
also, even without that, just the metadata -- which even signal can't really hide -- is something the feds can always get, and if they know who you were talking to, when and how much, they can figure out the rest.
9. "Prosecutors said Manafort used a method called "foldering"" In response to Reply # 0
Prosecutors said Manafort used a method called "foldering" to covertly talk to people. It's not that complicated: He made an email account and shared the password. He wrote messages but saved them as drafts, never sending actual emails. Other guys open the draft, read it, delete.
---------- In the same 2015 conversation with her sister, Andrea allegedly suggests to Jessica that their father used covert methods to send messages to Ukraine. "I was there when it happened. I saw him on his shady email," she allegedly wrote. "They don't write emails. They log on and write in the drafts So it's never transmitted over any servers." ----------
16. "Unredacted government exhibit showing alleged attempts by Manafort and K..." In response to Reply # 0
Unredacted government exhibit showing alleged attempts by Manafort and Kilimnik to influence witness testimonies has been released. The witnesses, journalists Alan Friedman and Eckart Sager, produced the messages to the FBI.
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