Re:WhatsApp backdoor allows snooping on encrypted messages
by arjie on Friday January 13, 2017 @10:45AM
(#13391638)
If I lose my phone, I expect my new phone to have proper continuity on the messages. I'd rather have that than any encryption, to be honest. I don't care if the government spies on me. I do care if something someone sent me gets lost.
Re:WhatsApp backdoor allows snooping on encrypted messages
by jdjb on Friday January 13, 2017 @11:11AM
(#13391865)
Then don't use a messenger that promises end-to-end encryption. Client side encryption is all about ensuring only clients that hold private keys can read messages delivered to them.
Re:WhatsApp backdoor allows snooping on encrypted messages
by arjie on Friday January 13, 2017 @06:39PM
(#13395772)
More like, you can stop using this messenger because, guess what? It does what I want and not what you want. You move.
Re:WhatsApp backdoor allows snooping on encrypted messages
by wowaname on Friday January 13, 2017 @12:31PM
(#13392631)
You should at least have a backup of your private key so you can import it on your new phone rather than having the sender re-encrypt to whatever key your new phone decides to generate.
It's kind of like that other nonsense tech companies are doing these days, by supporting U2F auth, but then requiring you also set-up SMS auth in parallel, so that "if you lose your U2F key you can go back in with the SMS"
Yeah, except that completely eliminates the point of using a U2F key in the first place, since your security would be no better than when you're just using SMS auth.
Or we can go back to "security questions", which I think most agree now are just not worth it, despite the fact that they can help users "recover their passwords".
If end-to-end encrypted messages can be intercepted through this, then WhatsApp shouldn't be offering this feature. The downside is much greater than the upside.