U.S. officials urge Americans to use encrypted apps amid cyberattack that exposed live phone calls
www.nbcnews.com
FBI and CISA officials said it was impossible to predict when the telecommunications companies would be fully safe from interlopers.
  • phoneymouse@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    17 days ago

    The US Govt 5 years ago: e2e encryption is for terrorists. The govt should have backdoors.

    The US Govt now: Oh fuck, our back door got breached, everyone quick use e2e encryption asap!

      • dan@upvote.auEnglish
        1·
        16 days ago

        I laughed so much at that. Encryption is literally just long complicated numbers combined with other long complicated numbers using mathematical formulae. You can’t ban maths.

        If I remember correctly, there’s also a law in Australia where they can force tech companies to introduce backdoors in their systems and encryption algorithms, and the company must not tell anyone about it. AFAIK they haven’t tried to actually use that power yet, but it made the (already relatively stagnant) tech market in Australia even worse. Working in tech is the main reason I left Australia for the USA - there’s just so many more opportunities and significantly higher paying jobs for software developers in Silicon Valley.

  • PagingDoctorLove@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    Question for more tech savvy people: should I be worried about wiping old data, and if so for which apps? Just messaging apps, or also email and social media? Or can I just use the encrypted apps moving forward?

    • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      just wanted to add that deleting an app will not result in deletion of your data stored in the cloud (e.g. your emails)

      • PagingDoctorLove@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        15 days ago

        That I do know. I’m not worried about emails, or really anything specific. My online activity is pretty tame, but that’s within the context of a country with a functioning democracy that treats women like free humans. Not a surveillance state that plans to criminalize reproductive healthcare and turn women into sex slaves. I guess the problem I’m having is I don’t know how much I need to change my online habits because I have no idea how bad things are going to get.

        • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          14 days ago

          that’s great to hear. in your case not wiping emails and social media is not that much of a danger, I would assume, but I would do it anyway, even if I was not a women, just for the sake of it not being used (theoretically) for ads and such anymore. but be sure you have backed up every email and post you will delete, and storing it securely