Cybersecurity @sh.itjust.works Kid @sh.itjust.works 1w ago

FBI Warns Americans to Start Using Encrypted Messaging Apps

gizmodo.com FBI Warns Americans to Start Using Encrypted Messaging Apps

It's all about protecting against China, but there's the added benefit of protecting against Trump.

53 comments

Ok FBI, let me know which ones to use
1/20/25: FBI Orders Americans to Use Unencrypted Messaging Apps
Why not Matrix ? Its E2E nit just TLS and also it prevents vendor lock in. This way chosing a providor is really about trust and not also about having to chose the same thing what your friends use
- https://element.io/blog/senators-implore-department-of-defense-to-expand-the-use-of-matrix/
- Someone didn't see police got into it according to another article I just saw in another post.
  
  Different matrix
silly question maybe but after researching China a bit for a few days, I'm genuinely curious: I like supporting the LGBTQ cause, which I could see making me want to avoid Trump probing, but from what I researched, China gov is not against LGBTQ. So is there any specific reason I should fear China looking at my stuff?
Is it basically if I have account info in messages they would hack my accounts?
- https://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/viewpoint/how-crackdown-transformed-lgbtq-activism-china
  
  Looks like they're cracking down on LGBT
  
  interesting! thanks for sharing!
That's great when my bank only uses sms for mfa though.

Seriously, bank and credit card companies need to get with the program more than me and my friends.
- Steam. The store front I get my video games from. Has 2-factor authentication with a short time rotating code. To secure my Steam account.
  
  My bank uses SMS and "security questions" aka personal trivia questions.
  
  Easy to guess with some social engineering
- Right? Had a bank account once, where the login password could only have up to 8 characters. And only digits.
  
  Lucky, mine is 6 (yes, right now in 2024)
- That's a huge part of why I use my brokerage, Fidelity, as my main bank, they support Symantec VIP TOTP. I prefer my regular TOTP solution, but this us miles ahead of literally every other bank I've used.
- The only bank that allowed me to use totp was a credit union. You'd think the rich ass banks could afford to hire a developer to set up good MFA.
  
  Yeah, and just for a few months. TOTP really isn't that complicated...
- That's wild
Are there still apps that arnt encrypted?
- Telegram, for all their security claims, is basically not actually encrypted at all.
  
  This is incorrect. Telegram is not end to end encrypted by default. But it is encrypted to and from their servers.
- There are many where the server owners can see the messages, just not anyone else between the sender and receiver.
  
  Threema and Signal are good options that don’t do this.
  
  maybe not threema

53 comments