A court has blocked a British government attempt to keep secret a legal case over its demand to access Apple Inc. user data in a victory for privacy advocates. The UK Investigatory Powers Tribunal, a special court that handles cases related to government surveillance, said the authorities’ efforts were a “fundamental interference with the principle Read more about UK Effort to Keep Apple Encryption Fight Secret Is Blocked[…]
The EU has shared its plans to ostensibly keep the continent’s denizens secure – and among the pages of bureaucratese are a few worrying sections that indicate the political union wants to backdoor encryption by 2026, or even sooner. While the superstate has made noises about backdooring encryption before, the ProtectEU plan [PDF], launched on Read more about EU: These are scary times – let’s backdoor encryption and make everyone unsafe![…]
Good work, Britain. Owners of Apple devices in the United Kingdom will be a little less safe moving forward as the company pulls its most secure end-to-end (E2E) encryption from the country. The move is in response to government demands there that Apple build a backdoor into its iCloud encryption feature that would allow law Read more about Apple Says ‘No’ to UK Backdoor Order, Will Just Disable E2E Cloud Encryption Instead[…]
The EU Commission has been pushing client-side scanning for well over a year. This new intrusion into private communications has been pitched as perhaps the only way to prevent the sharing of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Mandates proposed by the EU government would have forced communication services to engage in client-side scanning of content. Read more about EU Trys to Implement Client-Side Scanning, death to encryption By Personalised Targeting of EU Residents With Misleading Ads[…]
Once known for distributing hacking tools and shaming software companies into improving their security, a famed group of technology activists is now working to develop a system that will allow the creation of messaging and social networking apps that won’t keep hold of users’ personal data. The group, Cult of the Dead Cow, has developed Read more about Cult of Dead Cow hacktivists design distributed encryption system for mobile apps[…]
For more than 25 years, a technology used for critical data and voice radio communications around the world has been shrouded in secrecy to prevent anyone from closely scrutinizing its security properties for vulnerabilities […] The backdoor, known for years by vendors that sold the technology but not necessarily by customers, exists in an encryption Read more about TETRA Military and Police Radio Code Encryption Has a Flaw: A built in Backdoor[…]
Samsung shipped an estimated 100 million smartphones with botched encryption, including models ranging from the 2017 Galaxy S8 on up to last year’s Galaxy S21. Researchers at Tel Aviv University found what they called “severe” cryptographic design flaws that could have let attackers siphon the devices’ hardware-based cryptographic keys: keys that unlock the treasure trove Read more about Samsung Screwed Up Encryption on 100M Phones[…]
The UK government is set to launch a multi-pronged publicity attack on end-to-end encryption, Rolling Stone has learned. One key objective: mobilizing public opinion against Facebook’s decision to encrypt its Messenger app. The Home Office has hired the M&C Saatchi advertising agency — a spin-off of Saatchi and Saatchi, which made the “Labour Isn’t Working” Read more about Revealed: UK Gov’t Plans Publicity Blitz to Undermine Chat Privacy, encryption. Of course they use children. And Fear.[…]
The wait is over. It’s now possible to encrypt your WhatsApp chat history on both Android and iOS, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday. The company plans to roll out the feature slowly to ensure it can deliver a consistent and reliable experience to all users. However, once you can access the feature, it Read more about WhatsApp begins rolling out end-to-end encryption for chat backups[…]
Zoom has agreed to pay $85 million to settle claims that it lied about offering end-to-end encryption and gave user data to Facebook and Google without the consent of users. The settlement between Zoom and the filers of a class-action lawsuit also covers security problems that led to rampant “Zoombombings.” The proposed settlement would generally give Read more about Zoom to pay $85M for lying about encryption and sending data to Facebook and Google[…]
It was a closed source backdoored system. This goes to show that weakening encryption for political reasons and trusting software that can’t be audited independently is a Bad Idea ™ A weakness in the algorithm used to encrypt cellphone data in the 1990s and 2000s allowed hackers to spy on some internet traffic, according to Read more about Bombshell Report Finds Phone Network Encryption Was Deliberately Weakened[…]
Encrypted service providers are urging lawmakers to back away from a controversial plan that critics say would undercut effective data protection measures. ProtonMail, Threema, Tresorit and Tutanota — all European companies that offer some form of encrypted services — issued a joint statement this week declaring that a resolution the European Council adopted on Dec. Read more about ProtonMail, Tutanota among authors of letter urging EU to reconsider encryption rules[…]
Yesterday, the BBC ran a story with the factually untrue headline, “Cellebrite claimed to have cracked chat app’s encryption.” This is false. Not only can Cellebrite not break Signal encryption, but Cellebrite never even claimed to be able to. Since we weren’t actually given the opportunity to comment in that story, we’re posting this to Read more about No, Cellebrite cannot ‘break Signal encryption.’[…]
In September, we noted that officials in the EU were continuing an effort to try to ban end-to-end encryption. Of course, that’s not how they put it. They say they just want “lawful access” to encrypted content, not recognizing that any such backdoor effectively obliterates the protections of end-to-end encryption. A new “Draft Council Resolution Read more about EU Takes Another Small Step Towards Trying To Ban Encryption; New Paper Argues Tech Can Backdoor Encryption Safely. It can’t.[…]
Members of the intelligence-sharing alliance Five Eyes, along with government representatives for Japan and India, have published a statement over the weekend calling on tech companies to come up with a solution for law enforcement to access end-to-end encrypted communications. The statement is the alliance’s latest effort to get tech companies to agree to encryption backdoors. Read more about Five Eyes governments, India, and Japan make new call for encryption backdoors – insist that democracy is an insecure police state[…]
Zoom today said it will make end-to-end (E2E) encryption available to all of its users, regardless of whether they pay for it or not. The videoconferencing overnight-sensation has walked back its initial plan to limit E2E cryptography to schools and paid-for accounts, after facing a storm of criticism for the restriction. It will, from next Read more about Zoom will offer proper end-to-end encryption to free vid-chat accounts – not just paid-up bods – once you verify your phone number…[…]
Meetings on Zoom, the increasingly popular video conferencing service, are encrypted using an algorithm with serious, well-known weaknesses, and sometimes using keys issued by servers in China, even when meeting participants are all in North America, according to researchers at the University of Toronto. The researchers also found that Zoom protects video and audio content Read more about Zoom’s Flawed Encryption Linked to China[…]
Attorney General Bill Barr, along with officials from the United Kingdom and Australia, is set to publish an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking the company to delay plans for end-to-end encryption across its messaging services until it can guarantee the added privacy does not reduce public safety. A draft of the letter, Read more about US, UK and Australia want Zuckerberg To Halt Plans For End-To-End Encryption Across Facebook’s Apps – because they want to be able to spy on you. As will other criminals. What happened to the “Free world”?[…]
Antitrust investigators with the House Judiciary Committee are looking into Google’s plans to add Domain Name System over Transport Layer Security (DNS over TLS) to its Chrome browser, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, in the latest escalation of scrutiny over the company’s business practices. The Department of Justice has also heard complaints, a Read more about House Antitrust Investigators Now Scrutinizing Google’s Plans to Add DNS Encryption to Chrome[…]
Social media platforms based in the U.S. including Facebook and WhatsApp will be forced to share users’ encrypted messages with British police under a new treaty between the two countries, according to a person familiar with the matter. The accord, which is set to be signed by next month, will compel social media firms to Read more about Facebook, WhatsApp Will Have to Share Messages With U.K. Police, breaking encryption. Don’t they realises this gives criminals access too?[…]
The potential impact of the latest attack on iPhones is massive, not to mention hugely concerning for every user of Apple’s famous smartphone. That simply visiting a website can lead to your iPhone being hacked silently by some unknown party is worrying enough. But given that, according to Google researchers, it’s possible for the hackers Read more about up to 2% of all Apple iPhones Hacked, says Google, and Breaks ALL messaging Encryption as well as sending location data[…]
The encryption debate is typically framed around the concept of an impenetrable link connecting two services whose communications the government wishes to monitor. The reality, of course, is that the security of that encryption link is entirely separate from the security of the devices it connects. The ability of encryption to shield a user’s communications Read more about Facebook’s answer to the encryption debate: install spyware with content filters! (updated: maybe not)[…]
Government officials in Germany are reportedly mulling a law to force chat app providers to hand over end-to-end encrypted conversations in plain text on demand. According to Der Spiegel this month, the Euro nation’s Ministry of the Interior wants a new set of rules that would require operators of services like WhatsApp, Signal, Apple iMessage, Read more about Germany thinks about resurrecting the Stasi, getting rid of end-to-end chat app encryption and requiring decrypted plain-text.[…]
Labor has backed down completely on its opposition to the Assistance and Access Bill, and in the process has been totally outfoxed by a government that can barely control the floor of Parliament. After proposing a number of amendments to the Bill, which Labor party members widely called out as inappropriate in the House of Read more about Australia now has encryption-busting laws as Labor capitulates[…]
Fundamental flaws in the encryption system used by popular solid-state drives (SSDs) can be exploited by miscreants to easily decrypt data, once they’ve got their hands on the equipment. A paper [PDF] drawn up by researchers Carlo Meijer and Bernard van Gastel at Radboud University in the Netherlands, and made public today, describes these critical Read more about Solid state of fear: Euro boffins bust open SSD, Bitlocker encryption (it’s really, really dumb)[…]