Deployed 82nd Airborne unit told to use these encrypted messaging apps on government cell phones
www.armytimes.com
“Unfortunately, those apps are more secure than texting in the clear, which is more or less the alternative. Granted, if a hostile party has access to the handset, that encryption isn’t particularly helpful.”

A little old but interesting non the less

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
      92·
      3 months ago

      That’s probably why it is recommended by the US government. They like things they have control over.

      • Dymonika@beehaw.org
        1·
        3 months ago

        If they truly didn’t care about this then they would probably mention, like, Matrix or something

    • refalo@programming.dev
      2·
      3 months ago

      It’s also funded by the CIA. Although Signal is/was also indirectly funded by US Congress via OTF, and some claim that means the CIA is somehow involved too. Of course, computers, the internet and tor also had major US government funding, for what it’s worth.

    • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
      10·
      3 months ago

      Because in most cases it isn’t encrypted, when it is it severely reduces functionality, and it doesn’t even use a crypto alg that’s widely approved of by trusted crypto experts?

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
      83·
      3 months ago

      I hope you are joking

      Telegram has strong ties to the US government. It isn’t encrypted by default and has a closed source system.

  • refalo@programming.dev
    1·
    3 months ago

    if a hostile party has access to the handset, that encryption isn’t particularly helpful

    Things like Molly-FOSS might help better with that, keeping its database locked and encrypted at rest on its own separately from any OS encryption or security. Perhaps GrapheneOS or similar could be beneficial as well.

    If you want something with not so many government ties, and maybe more decentralized, there is also SimpleX, Briar and Tox.

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      The problem with Molly encryption is that you can’t receive notifications when it is locked. That isn’t a easy problem to solve but it is something to keep in mind.

      • refalo@programming.dev
        1·
        3 months ago

        True but you can at least have it require biometrics to reopen the app and you can still get notifications then because the db is technically unlocked.