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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ibnanv" data-source="post: 21322812" data-attributes="member: 218596"><img src="https://img.purch.com/w/733/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhLmJlc3RvZm1pY3JvLmNvbS9PL0YvNTI4MzUxL29yaWdpbmFsL3NpZ25hbC1hcHAuanBn" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />WikiLeaks <a href="https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/#EXAMPLES" target="_blank">published documents</a>  purporting to show the CIA's hacking abilities. In with claims that the  intelligence agency compromised smart TVs to spy on their owners, among  other things, the documents explained how the agency targets  smartphones to evade the protections of end-to-end encrypted (E2EE)  messaging services like <a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/news/signal-video-calling-backend-improvements,33654.html" target="_blank">Signal</a> and WhatsApp. But don't panic--the CIA hasn't directly undermined the security measures used by those tools.  E2EE secures information by encrypting it before it ever leaves the  device. This protects the messages from man-in-the-middle attacks that  intercept communications between a device and an app's servers while  also preventing companies from reading the information themselves. It's  kind of like speaking into a tin can that's connected to another can by a  string; messages are only received by their intended recipients. Nobody  else gets anything.                This setup rose to prominence after Edward Snowden revealed National  Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs in 2013. Since then,  companies like Facebook, Google, and others have rushed to secure their  communications tools. (Even if Google did <a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/news/google-abandons-end-to-end-email-encryption,33745.html" target="_blank">turn over an E2EE project</a>  for Gmail to the public.) Many of these apps use the Signal  protocol--which is also used by a service of the same name--to protect  their users' messages from prying eyes.  Now the new WikiLeaks documents show that the CIA targets individual  smartphones to bypass these protections. To continue the metaphor above,  this is like putting a microphone in one of the tin cans so you can  hear everything someone says. The string still does its job by making  sure communications aren't overheard by anyone else, but because the can  has been compromised, the system doesn't offer the same level of  security that it did before.  Open Whisper Systems, the nonprofit behind the Signal protocol and service, <a href="https://twitter.com/whispersystems/status/839204754718932992" target="_blank">said</a> in a <a href="https://twitter.com/whispersystems/status/839204850990628864" target="_blank">series</a> of <a href="https://twitter.com/whispersystems/status/839204973921501184" target="_blank">tweets</a> that this could actually be a good sign:  The CIA/Wikileaks story today is about getting malware  onto phones, none of the exploits are in Signal or break Signal Protocol  encryption. [...] The story isn't about Signal or WhatsApp, but to the  extent that it is, we see it as confirmation that what we're doing is  working. [...] Ubiquitous e2e encryption is pushing intelligence  agencies from undetectable mass surveillance to expensive, high-risk,  targeted attacks.  In a sense, the CIA hacking phones to work around E2EE is kind of  like someone picking up the device to read all the messages stored on  it. (Or, to continue that metaphor from earlier, holding one of the cans  to their ear.) It's not up to groups like Open Whisper Systems to  prevent that eavesdropping--people have to be careful about how they use  their devices, and manufacturers have to make those devices as hard to  hack as possible.  It's better to use encrypted messaging services and force  intelligence agencies to use targeted surveillance techniques than to be  caught in the dragnet surveillance that Snowden revealed four years  ago.</blockquote>

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