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posted by
cmn32480
on Tuesday April 05 2016, @11:17PM
from the what-about-beginning-to-beginning dept.
from the what-about-beginning-to-beginning dept.
The title pretty much says it all. According to the report:
the service will encrypt all messages, phone calls, photos, and videos moving among [the devices].
Moxie Marlinspike is involved, so they have a chance of getting it right, and no one, even WhatsApp, will be able to know what you”re saying, texting, viewing, &c. (Unless, of course, your widget is running malware, or the opposition can get their mitts on it.)-: They claim this is available on nearly a billion devices—this is a really big deal.
takyon: Alternate links with no Wired paywall: TechCrunch, Washington Post, CNET, Reuters.
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WhatsApp Encrypts End-to-End in Latest Version
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Do not use if foil seal is broken.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2016, @04:35AM
Too bad you can't trust one of the handsets on the market today so all efforts are in vain.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2016, @05:45AM
You can't trust any of the consumer grade CPU MFGs either. [wikipedia.org] AMD has a similar system with similar security concerns. That's why Russia and China are producing their own MIPS fabs. I have a few homebrew systems of my own, but that's just a fun hobby, not really practical (nor are my systems very reliable).
So, any case one's best bet is to isolate the chip doing the ciphering from its network -- remove its ability to phone home. Perform the encryption on a device that never goes "online", and transfer the cipher via a method that's verifiable (like as the new hotness of "authenticated encryption", such as hash based encryption) -- Preferably perform this over a connection type that doesn't expose the isolated cipher host to exploit. I use a custom parallel port interface I built myself between desktop machines, and a similar homebrew IR interface for transferring onto mobiles. Think of it as a hardware firewall. Then the data can transit the nets encrypted and tamper proof.
So long as the other party takes similar precautions you can be safe.
Most people don't have anything they need to communicate securely. Most people just need to protect against thieves. Most people don't think crypto is "fun" nor do such things just because they can either...