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by v5v3 366 days ago
Government: Zuck put a backdoor in WhatsApp or we will put you in a blacksite UFC ring and beat you up.

Also Government: WhatsApp has a backdoor. Don't use it.

8 comments

Please don't comment like this on HN.
Also government: installed special version of Signal that includes a backdoor (logs)

People: don't use Signal! It has a back door! Instead, use Telegram, it doesn't have encryption by default and is highly suspect of a foreign adversary

Also people: "I'll just send copies of all my messages to the government because they have my data anyways"

Also Government: uses Israel-backdoored custom Signal
What source do you have for that?
They used it in view of press cameras, many articles about this but here’s the first one from Google for me: https://www.404media.co/mike-waltz-accidentally-reveals-obsc...
Jeffrey Goldberg.
Yeah but Israel is Israel, so there's no actual problem there. Now, if it was Iran...
Tell that to Jonathon Pollard.
The Government is made up of a huge number of organizations with competing goals, budgets, capabilities, and interests.
Grammar is really needed here cos:

Zuck put a backdoor

And

Zuck, put a backdoor

…are about as different as they could be

>Government: Zuck put a backdoor in WhatsApp or we will put you in a blacksite UFC ring and beat you up.

Source?

>Also Government: WhatsApp has a backdoor. Don't use it.

If "zuck" is really in the pocket of the US government, why should they worry about their own backdoors?

> If "zuck" is really in the pocket of the US government, why should they worry about their own backdoors?

Have you ever watched a Saturday morning cartoon? Minions betray their masters all the time. An effective evil overlord doesn’t underestimate their lackey’s capacity for duplicity and betrayal at a pivotal moment.

The most fun may even appreciate the gall: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Nagus_(episode)#:~:...

I have a movie for you: "Broken City" (2013) great cast and constantly unexpected turns of events
Thank you for the recommendation, but definitely not for me. Couldn’t get past the half-way mark.
à chacun son goût
Once it's backdoored you don't know who's watching it.

It's the most hilarious thing about backdoors or collecting extensive covert intel on your own population, that any failure of opsec makes it much easier for all your adversaries to also spy on them in ways they would never otherwise be able to, then compromise them, and flip them.

Why would there be a source for a backdoor of a closed source application?
Usually when you make important claims it's expected you back them up with some sort of evidence.
There was a joke in there which might have gone unnoticed.
Whoosh!!!! :p
Sources to back up the claim, not source code of the application.
Software frequently has bugs and sometimes they have security implications. In order to claim that a specific bug is a backdoor you need to have evidence beyond the existence of a bug.
House (legislative branch) staffers presumably don't want executive branch snoops reading their group chats. Doubly so for Democratic staffers not wanting specifically the Trump executive branch reading them.
Explains why Zuck has been training Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
WhatsApp on TV: “Trust us! It’s encrypted :) :) :)”
And on social media. Maybe I'm being too literal and pedantic, but it bugs me that they say "nobody" can read your messages. What's the point of using it if even the recipient can't read them (or the sender for that matter!).
I often remember something I posted and wish nobody had ever seen it.
Ouch, ok, yes, point taken...