Re: FBI Warns Americans to Start Using Encrypted Messaging Apps

On Dec 4, 2024 at 3:55:59 PM EST, "Nomen Nescio" <[email protected]> wrote:

> It's all about protecting against China, but there's the added benefit of
> protecting against Trump.
> 
> 
> 
> America’s top cybersecurity and law enforcement officials made a coordinated
> push Tuesday to raise awareness about cyber threats from foreign actors in the
> wake of an intrusion of U.S. telecom equipment dubbed Salt Typhoon. The
> hackers are linked to the Chinese government and they still have a presence in
> U.S. systems, spying on American communications, in what Sen. Mark Warner from
> Virginia has called “the worst hack in our nation’s history.”
> 
> Officials with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and
> FBI went so far as to urge Americans to use encrypted messaging apps,
> according to a new report from NBC News, something that’s ostensibly about
> keeping foreign hackers out of your communications. But using apps like Signal
> has received a lot more attention in recent weeks as Donald Trump is slated to
> take power on Jan. 20, 2025. Trump has nominated Kash Patel to become head of
> the FBI, a jaw-droppingly authoritarian decision given Patel’s promises to
> punish Trump’s political enemies and imprison journalists.
> 
> “Our suggestion, what we have told folks internally, is not new here:
> encryption is your friend, whether it’s on text messaging or if you have the
> capacity to use encrypted voice communication. Even if the adversary is able
> to intercept the data, if it is encrypted, it will make it impossible,” Jeff
> Greene, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA, said on a
> press call Tuesday according to NBC News.
> 
> The unnamed FBI agent on the call with reporters echoed the message, according
> to NBC News, urging Americans to use “responsibly managed encryption,” which
> is a rather big deal when you remember that agencies like the FBI have been
> most resistant to Silicon Valley’s encryption efforts.
> 
> The hackers behind Salt Typoon failed to monitor or intercept anything
> encrypted, meaning that anything sent through Signal and Apple’s iMessage was
> likely protected, according to the New York Times. But the intrusion for all
> other communications was otherwise extremely galling. The hackers had access
> to metadata, including information on messages and phone calls along with when
> and where they were delivered. The hackers reportedly focused on targets
> around Washington, D.C.
> 
> The most alarming sort of intrusion in Salt Typhoon involved the system used
> by U.S. officials to wiretap Americans with a court order, but NBC reports the
> FBI didn’t provide much in the way of details on that including if any
> classified material was accessed. But ABC News reports officials believe the
> intrusion had a goal of gaining access to a much broader swath of American
> communications beyond classified material.
> 
> The cybersecurity divisions of the Five Eyes spy alliance between the U.S.,
> UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, also released a joint statement on
> Tuesday that includes a guide about how to harden your systems against the
> Salt Typhoon attack.
> 
> Again, the focus of these recommendations has been on protecting against
> threats from overseas. But just about everyone knows what’s likely to happen
> when Trump gets back into office. The former and future president has pledged
> to become a dictator on day one and has repeatedly threatened his political
> opponents with charges of treason. Trump even suggested last year that Gen.
> Mark Milley should be executed.
> 
> And while nobody knows for sure how seriously to take all of these threats, it
> doesn’t hurt to get your digital house in order. Because Signal may not be
> perfect, but encrypted apps are better than nothing when the U.S. is staring
> down the barrel of a fascist government. Trump is saying some pretty
> outrageous things even before he takes office. You can dismiss his suggestion
> to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that Canada should become a U.S.
> state as just a joke. But this is the guy who literally tried to buy
> Greenland. All bets are off when he takes power again.
> 
> https://gizmodo.com/fbi-warns-americans-to-start-using-encrypted-messaging-apps-2000533800

Gotta love that it is the same FBI that wants backdoors in all encryption.