XPost: alt.fan.heinlein
Cryptoengineer <
petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
*They were using Signal, which wasn't authorized for classified data.
That said, I think it probably *is* pretty damn secure. Known breaks
of signal aren't the underlying cryptography or protocols, but
user errors.
Note that the systems that the government normally uses for secure remote conferencing are kind of clumsy, but make it impossible to invite random
people from outside to conferences. They are designed to avoid stupid
errors.
Because they are clumsy and have kind of ugly UIs, people don't like
using them. So they go around normal channels, just like Mrs. Clinton
did by running a private email server to avoid using the awful government
email systems. This is bad news, no matter who does it.
*They were using Signal on their personal, unsecured phones, which may
very well have been hacked by enemy forces, even if Signal is perfectly >secure. They're given secure phones for a reason.
This is worse than just bad news, this is super bad news.
*JD Vance was violating the Presidential Records Act, which requires
that POTUS and VPOTUS communications be preserved. Signal deletes
messages after 2 weeks, typically.
This is also bad news from the standpoint of historians, but if you look
you'll see that Trump crew has a history of avoiding leaving proper public records of any of their work.
This is confusing to me since if they were actually proud of what they were doing, you would expect them to be all in favor of leaving records to posterity.
That reporter is the person who came out best in this: If he'd
actually been the kind of person the GOP is characterizing him as,
he'd have tweeted out the conversation in real time. But he did
the responsible, sane thing, and waited until the strikes were over.
and the info unactionable.
Yes, all of the reponses I have seen from the white house have been to
blame the reporter, when in fact he reporter's access to the conversation
seems one of the least alarming parts of it to me. The most alarming
thing is that folks were using an unsecured applicaion from unsecured
phones. Everything else seems secondary.
Back when I was working, I held a clearance. If I'd treated
classified info in this cavalier manner, I'd have gone to jail,
and I'd have deserved it.
Indeed.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
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