The great thing about the fierce rivalry between iOS and Android is that both platforms learn things from each other. For instance, Google has learned a lot about good overall design from Apple, while Apple has learned the value in opening up some parts of iOS — most recently its keyboard functionality — to third-party modifications.
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It’s likely that every single day, you use a messaging app to communicate with friends and family. It’s also likely that the messaging app you’re using is unequipped to protect your privacy.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has just released a scorecard featuring 39 messaging apps ranging in popularity from the relatively small Silent Phone and CryptoCat to the ubiquitous iMessage and Facebook Messenger. The scorecard measures the security of each app using seven different criteria.
That includes the questions … Is your communication encrypted in transit? Is your communication encrypted with a key the provider doesn’t have access to? Can you independently verify your correspondent’s identity? Are past communications secure if your keys are stolen? Is the code open to independent review? Is the crypto design well-documented? and Has there been an independent security audit?
Spoiler alert – it’s not good. The messaging landscape is woefully insecure.
In fact, only six applications garnered a perfect score: ChatSecure, CryptoCat, Signal/Redphone, Silent Phone, Silent Text, and TextSecure.
Every other app failed in at least one of the aforementioned areas.
“The revelations from Edward Snowden confirm that governments are spying on our digital lives, devouring all communications that aren’t protected by encryption,” said EFF Technology Projects Director Peter Eckersley. “Many new tools claim to protect you, but don’t include critical features like end-to-end encryption or secure deletion. This scorecard gives you the facts you need to choose the right technology to send your message.”
Out of the most popular apps to be rated, Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime had the best security score (five out of seven).
Services like AIM, Blackberry Messenger, Secret, and Yahoo Messenger were only able to garner one check mark – for messages being encrypted in transit.
Popular apps like WhatsApp, Snapchat, Skype, and Facebook Messenger only grabbed two checks.
“We’re focused on improving the tools that everyday users need to communicate with friends, family members, and colleagues,” said EFF Staff Attorney Nate Cardozo. “We hope the Secure Messaging Scorecard will start a race-to-the-top, spurring innovation in stronger and more usable cryptography.”
Eckersley told Ars Technica that even a perfect score on the EFF’s security scorecard did mean the apps are 100 percent recommended.
“Getting a perfect score here is more the first step than final victory. We still need usability studies, metadata protection, independently commissioned audits, and other measures of security before we try to get the whole network to switch to one of these options,” he said.
He went on to say that “good cryptographic design should not cause significant inconvenience.”
Check out the full report here.
The post Messaging Apps Are Terribly Insecure appeared first on SecurityProNews.
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Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus might represent the fastest-selling smartphone duo of all time, but some people find certain aspects of the phones’ design to be “appalling.” We also discussed some questionable design decisions in our in-depth iPhone 6 review, though we didn’t feel quite that strongly about them. Either way, it makes sense that people would begin looking toward the future in search of new iPhone designs, since not everyone is happy with the look of the current iPhones.
Now, a new iPhone concept attempts to look beyond the next few years, where Apple’s iPhone of the future is the most beautiful handset the world has ever seen.
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As is the case each and every year in the United States, this is the time of year we give thanks… and buy lots and lots of stuff. Retailers are gearing up for massive sales on Black Friday this year, and we have already shared the details of some incredible sales. Gadget seekers will find tons of crazy deals at Best Buy this year, of course, but other stores including Target and Walmart have some solid offers on tap as well. Even companies like Microsoft and Verizon are getting in on the action in 2014.
Now, the all of the sales planned at Staples and RadioShack have been revealed, and there are some insane deals in store.
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Samsung doesn’t need saving just yet, but most people seemed to laugh it off last year when I said that the South Korea-based giant was quickly headed toward a big mess. In developed markets, customers flocked to Samsung’s giant phones and their magnificent displays. In regions where mid-range and low-end phones are more prominent, Samsung flooded the market with dozens of affordable models. Even more important, perhaps, the company devoted double-digit billions each year to marketing and advertising its devices, and all that money helped Samsung keep its impossible promise.
But a huge problem was developing and not everyone saw it. Samsung apparently didn’t even see it, or it simply turned a blind eye. The problem with being a leader is that others will follow. Apple’s lawsuits may have branded Samsung a copycat, but the company was absolutely a leader in building a wide range of big-screen smartphones and an even bigger arsenal of capable, affordable mid-range and low-end phones.
Then, others followed. And they did it better. Now, no one seems to be laughing anymore.
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Apple’s rumored 12.2-inch to 12.9-inch iPad Pro tablet will not enter mass production sooner than the second quarter of 2015, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has learned, as Apple is still struggling with manufacturing issues. The analyst, who’s often right about Apple’s upcoming devices, has also said that iPad sales in the first quarter of next year might be significantly lower than they were in the same quarter this year.
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Apple is reportedly getting ready to manufacture the Apple Watch, with Digitimes citing supply chain sources that say chipmakers are “gearing up” to start production for the device.
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Samsung at its developer conference this week unveiled a new product that’s supposed to offer Samsung device users a unified experience across devices, The Next Web reports, akin to Apple’s Continuity/Handoff features available for Mac, iPhone and iPad users. Called Samsung Flow, the new feature is supposed to connect a variety of Samsung-made devices, including smartphones, tablets and TVs, and offer users access to the same content when moving from one device to the other.
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Just in time for the release of Android 5.0 on most of its recent Nexus devices, Google has published a new series of Android commercials on its YouTube account. Like the commercials before them, these ads all feature Androidified characters, which I can’t help but think are far too reminiscent of South Park’s take on Canadians.
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It’s been an exciting year for incredible videos shot from outer space, as just this week we’re being treated to a live video of scientists’ first attempt at landing a probe on a comet. YouTube user James Tyrwhitt-Drake has put together a beautiful 4K timelapse video of the sun that uses over 72,000 images take from NASA’s solar dynamics observatory to show us what the sun looks like as it makes its rotation.
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