Whatsapp has activated yesterday the encryption end-to-end for all its users, roughly a billion people around the world. This means that the exchange of messages, whether text, images, video or voice calls, are protected and not even the same Whatsapp has the opportunity to read them without your knowledge. The protection also applies to groups, if all the members use an updated version of the application. With this latest update the full application a process started a year and a half ago.
Whatsapp is then queued to other instruments that have long been offering this type of protection, such as the competitor Telegram or iMessage Apple – In this regard it is worth at least mentioning the recent conflict between the ‘ Cupertino company and the US government.
For criminals and spies will therefore be more difficult to get our own business, but it will be even more complicated the work of law enforcement agencies around the world. For the purposes of the investigation in fact, the end-to-end encryption is a tough obstacle to overcome, and on this issue the debate is intense around the world – unless command totalitarian regimes that do not allow the existence of communication tools uncontrollable.
However, it is a false problem: criminals and terrorists have a wide choice of tools and techniques to communicate without being identified or intercept. For the private (and honest) citizen, however, this change can only be positive because it gives better protection against cyber crimes.
How does encryption of Whatsapp?
If your application is updated in every chat we will see a notice that informs us about the possibility to exchange encrypted messages. “ All of this happens automatically : There is no need to activate any settings or create special secret chat to protect the messages,” he said on the WhatsApp website.
By clicking on the contact information of the group, in addition, we will verify if the messages are protected: If you see the lock, then the encryption is enabled.
From a technical document, then, we find that Whataspp uses a dual authentication system with very solid algorithms (public and private key, RSA) and AES 256 encryption and HMAC-SHA256. In practical terms, only the intended recipient can read the message.
Read also: A brief history of encryption
What is the QR code in the encryption of Whatsapp?
Several readers have noticed that you can click “Confirm” and scan the QR code on the other person’s phone. This does not need to enable encryption, which as we saw is turned on by default in fully automatic mode.
The reading of the QR code is an operation of verification and control. One “for paranoid” tool if you will, we need to check that both the phones have actually the same cryptographic key used for the chat (chat each has its own key).
If the test were to reveal two different codes mean that someone has interfered in communication, and thus it is no longer safe. Unless it has made some mistakes, such as reading the code of another chat.
The technical aspects are complicated, but what counts, on balance, is that we can exchange more serenely messages using WhatsApp , without fear of a criminal intercepts them. The next time that your relative asks you distracted her email password (which you generosity maintained in a secure database) you can send it with Whatsapp without too many worries.
More importantly, though, it is that they will be more protected than people living in countries controlled by totalitarian and violent regimes. Places where if you intercept a message not like risking your life or imprisonment.
It is total anonymity?
No, not at all. WhatsApp now protects the messages, but if the authorities require can tell who has communicated with whom, and when. Can not (more) reveal the contents of the messages, not even wanting (net of backdoors and unknown vulnerabilities). Access to messages is possible via the backup files (iCloud or Google Drive), or by physical access to the phone (if not encrypted in turn).
No comments:
Post a Comment