Scandal in the White House: What is the signal application and how secure – BBC News is in Serbian

Free messaging app The signal reached the front pages after the white house confirmed that it was used for a secrets group chat high American officials.

Main editor of Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to the group in which the plans for attack on the attack were considered Hute in Yemen.

This incident provoked a great echo, and the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, even the Šumer, called it « one of the most misunderstanding » leaks of military intelligence in history and requested an investigation.

But what is the signal actually and how many communications are the senior officials in it?

Safe app?

The signal estimates that there are between 40 and 70 million monthly users, which makes it quite small compared to the greatest messaging services, Vocap and the Mession, who count users in billions.

However, the signal leads when it comes to safety.

In the center of that security, there is an encryption of the Sa-end-to-end (E2EE).

Simply put, this means that only the sender and recipient can read the messages – even the signal itself does not have access to them.

Several other platforms also use this encryption (E2EE), including VOCAP, but signal security features go a step further.

For example, the code that drives the app is open (Open Source), which means that anyone can review and check it that there are no vulnerabilities that hackers could use.

His owners claim that the application collects far less customer data and, in particular, does not keep records of usernames, profile images or groups where people are members.

There is no need to mitigate these safety functions for profit: The signal is owned by the Foundation Signal, Non Profit Organization in the United States, which relies on donations instead of advertisements.

« The signal is a gold standard in private communication, » his director of Meredit Vitaker said In public posts IX After the story of the endangering of American national security is disclosed.

‘Very, very unusual’

This statement about the « Golden Standard » is exactly what makes the signal attractive for cyber security experts and journalists, who often use it.

However, even that level of protection is not enough for conversations at the highest level on extremely sensitive national security issues.

The reason for this lies in the fact that communication via mobile phone wears an inevitable risk – security depends exclusively from the user.

If someone gets access to your phone while the signal is open or if your password will be able to see your messages.

And no app can prevent someone to peek over your shoulders while using the phone in a public place.

The Data Expert Karo Robson, who cooperated with the American administration, said that the « very, very unusual » that high security officials communicate through a platform for messaging such as signals.

« You would usually use a very secure government system owned and under government administration, with an extremely high level of encryption, » she said.

She added that this would usually mean that devices are held on « very safe locations under government control ».

The US government has traditionally used Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF – Skip « ) for talks on national security issues is pronounced.

The SCIF is an ultra-secure closed area in which personal electronic devices are not allowed.

« To have access to such confidential information at all, you must be in a special room or building searched for eavesdropping devices or any tracking devices, » Robson said.

The SCIFs can be found in places like military centers, but also the homes of officials.

« The whole system is massively encrypted and provided using the highest standards of cryptography that the government has, » she said.

« Especially when the defense is in question. »

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Encryption and records

There is another problem associated with a signal that caused concern – disappearing messages.

The signal, as well as many other messaging applications, allows users to set messages to disappear after a certain period of time.

Jeffrey Goldberg from the Atlantic said some messages in the signal group that was added disappeared after a week.

This may violate records of records, unless the application users have forwarded their messages to official channels.

This is not the first time E2EE has caused disputes.

Different administrations wanted to create a so-called « rear door » in messaging services that use this encryption, so that they can read messages that they can constitute a threat to national security.

Applications such as the signal and VOCAP previously struggled against trying to make such a rear door, stating that it could be available and unauthorized.

The signal threatened to withdraw the app from the United Kingdom 2023. years If the lawmakers would insist on this.

This year, the British government has found themselves in a large dispute with the EPL company, which also uses E2EE to protect certain files.

EPL finally completely removed this function in the UK after the government required access to data protected by this method by the technological giant.

The procedure is in progress.

But how this controversial case shows, no level of security or legal protection is important if you simply share your confidential data with the wrong person.

Or, how is One critic is more directly said: « Encryption cannot protect you from stupidity. »

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