As top Trump aides sent texts on Signal, flight data show a member of the group chat was in Russia - eviltoast
  • orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    66
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    8 days ago

    That encryption is not impenetrable, however, and the Google Threat Intelligence Group warned just last month of “increasing efforts from several Russia state-aligned threat actors to compromise Signal Messenger accounts used by individuals of interest to Russia’s intelligence services.”

    This is somewhat disingenuous. Signal can’t be directly cracked. Only access to the phone directly or via mirroring can expose it. The article somewhat explains this.

    I am in no way whatsoever excusing the actions of these douche-chalupas. I prefer accuracy in my reporting, though. That said, Witkoff in Russia may as well have been a direct line to Putin.

    • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      48
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 days ago

      The most uncrackable encryption can be defeated by Steven Witkoff sitting on Putin’s lap while reading the messages.

    • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      26
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 days ago

      This seems a bit too nitpicky tbh.
      The author is correct, Signal is not “perfect”, because the weakest link is always the endpoint device and the end user. Which is kind of the whole point of this article; The issue is not that Signal was used, as it’s reasonably secure, it’s that the people using it are not secure at all.

      • orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        8 days ago

        Oh, I’m definitely picking nits. I agree and said as much in my last comment. But the way the article presented it made it feel like there is a clear and present danger from Chinese and Russian threat actors against the protocol.

        • AtHeartEngineer@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          7 days ago

          Right, those shouldn’t be conflated (the protocols vs the phone/persons security properties).I think anyone actively targeted by a major govt power is probably fucked though. Pegasus has taught us that, so while signal is probably a pretty secure protocol, phones definitely have a lot of vulnerabilities.

      • IsoKiero@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        8 days ago

        people using it are not secure at all.

        And this is very much not limited just to signal. No matter what software, protocol or any other way you use to communicate, both you and the receiving entity/entities are the weakest link by a long shot. I don’t expect even my closest friends to hold our everyday conversations secret if for whatever reason their wellbeing was threated in any way. And even if I did there’s always other options, like targeted social engineering, to get trough pretty much any reasonable safety concerns on digital communication.

        Of course in everyday life if our chat histories were publicly available it would not be too big of an issue, but it’s still something worth keeping on mind when interacting over any digital or any other written medium.

    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 days ago

      Given the rest of their behavior I’m seeing that chat member leaning across the lunch table towards Putin’s secretary, holding out his phone: “hey look, we’re just about to bomb Yemen!”

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 days ago

      may as well have been a direct line to Putin.

      Was Mr Putin over his shoulder at the crucial moment, or just a state-run high-def camera?

    • fitgse@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 days ago

      But it isn’t that hard to create a signal account with the name of someone high in the US ranks and send a request to these people. They are too dumb to actually validate the key of the person.

      Encryption can’t handle when the encrypt with a foe’s key and send that for the message.