Law enforcement agencies are seeing a rapid rise in the adoption of highly encrypted apps like Signal, which incorporate capabilities like image blurring to stop police from reviewing data. Criminals are using this application to communicate, send attachments, and making illegal deals that they want to keep discrete and out of sight from law enforcement. … Continue reading "Helping Law Enforcement Lawfully Access The Signal App"
It looks like in order to decrypt it, they need access to a key that’s stored somewhere on your phone. Does anyone who has a better understanding of this know if encrypting your phone would be enough to prevent that (assuming they’re not able to get ahold of it while it’s unlocked)?
Yes all the encrypted chats have an encryption key which is stored on your device or somewhere. So all of them are vulnerable to being read if your device is taken into custody - such as if you are searched, arrested or cross a border
imo encrypting your phone at most delays them. Obviously yyou should encrypt your phone anyway, if you have sensitive data on it
This celebrit thing is for the police. undoubtedly the NSA has easier access to reading everything easily. Unclear if police have the ability to crack an encrypted phone or not. It is possible that the police do not have this capability and it may be reserved for the national security groups.
earlier we saw the drama over the encrypted iPhone of the two mass shooters and Apple refusing to decrypt them. IMO its a drama to make people believe encrypting your phone makes it safe and make people believe Apple is “privacy oriented”.
You should avoid storing too much sensitive data on your phones. There are various case where people are coerced into giving their passwords
Signal is garbage anyway and the NSA is able to see who is calling who due to the centralized design plus you need a phone number to create an account.
Would the ability of the NSA and possibly the police to decrypt phones be due to a backdoor, and if so, could installing a different OS on the phone help prevent that?
the leaks suggest a range of mechanisms but yes installing a different OS would help. that doesnt make you immune and there are still ways to crack other OS but it would close off the backdoors of google Android.
Remember also that if you cross an international border you can be searched without any reason. There are many reports of people having their devices searched and the whole contents copied. Domestically they have to have a reason to search you - suspicion of crime, warrant etc.
It looks like in order to decrypt it, they need access to a key that’s stored somewhere on your phone. Does anyone who has a better understanding of this know if encrypting your phone would be enough to prevent that (assuming they’re not able to get ahold of it while it’s unlocked)?
Yes all the encrypted chats have an encryption key which is stored on your device or somewhere. So all of them are vulnerable to being read if your device is taken into custody - such as if you are searched, arrested or cross a border
imo encrypting your phone at most delays them. Obviously yyou should encrypt your phone anyway, if you have sensitive data on it
This celebrit thing is for the police. undoubtedly the NSA has easier access to reading everything easily. Unclear if police have the ability to crack an encrypted phone or not. It is possible that the police do not have this capability and it may be reserved for the national security groups.
earlier we saw the drama over the encrypted iPhone of the two mass shooters and Apple refusing to decrypt them. IMO its a drama to make people believe encrypting your phone makes it safe and make people believe Apple is “privacy oriented”.
You should avoid storing too much sensitive data on your phones. There are various case where people are coerced into giving their passwords
Signal is garbage anyway and the NSA is able to see who is calling who due to the centralized design plus you need a phone number to create an account.
Would the ability of the NSA and possibly the police to decrypt phones be due to a backdoor, and if so, could installing a different OS on the phone help prevent that?
the leaks suggest a range of mechanisms but yes installing a different OS would help. that doesnt make you immune and there are still ways to crack other OS but it would close off the backdoors of google Android.
installing a diff OS could brick your phone maybe. beware and maybe should use a cheap phone
Remember also that if you cross an international border you can be searched without any reason. There are many reports of people having their devices searched and the whole contents copied. Domestically they have to have a reason to search you - suspicion of crime, warrant etc.