New IoT Cryptocurrency Tech 'Evolved Beyond Blockchain ... CoinDesk A new cryptocurrency proof of concept designed for machine-to-machine payments is set to debut in Spain next week. The Iota project was created in a ... |
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New IoT Cryptocurrency Tech 'Evolved Beyond Blockchain ... - CoinDesk
Tuesday, February 21, 2017 4:43 AM UTC
Ticino, a region in southern Switzerland, has revealed its plans to issue its own local digital currency for everydayuse.
The announcement comes on the heels of the City Council of Zug in the east Switzerland launching a pilot project allowing paying for municipal services with bitcoin last May. During the initial phase of the programme, the maximum amount payable with the cryptocurrency was limited to 200 Swiss francs. The city authorities are not opposed to extending the experiment to other cryptocurrencies.
Called Ticinocoin (TIC), the future cryptocurrency is a brainchild of computer scientists Claudio Rossini and Michele Fiscalini. The developers have already tested the currency: the pilot phase of the project was completed last week, Tribune de Geneve reported.
According to Fiscalini, circulation of TIC may be limited to local services and products from Ticino. The exchange rate of TIC is expected to be one Swiss franc. The operations with ticinocoin may require obligatory authorisation by FINMA, the Swiss monetary regulator, the release said.
Ticinocoin is not the first local currency in Switzerland. In 2015, Lmanic Arc introduced the regional currency Lmans, which now accounts for over 100,000 units in circulation. The launch of the electronic version of Lman is due in March. Furthermore, Valais may introduce its own complementary currency Farinet this year.
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Do you need to worry if your baby has a flat head?
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Ticino plans to launch local cryptocurrency 'Ticinocoin' - EconoTimes
Dell EMCs VxRail turned one today, and the vendor marked the anniversary by adding the hyper-converged platform to its Enterprise Hybrid Cloud package.
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Dell EMC claims over 1,000 customers for VxRail through the end of 2016, with more than 8,000 nodes, 100,000 CPU cores and 65 PB of storage capacity shipped in the system. VxRail is EMCs first successful hyper-converged appliance, following a short, failed attempt with a Vspex Blue product launched in 2015.
Like Vspex Blue, VxRail is based on Dell-owned VMwares vSAN hyper-converged software. It also runs on Dell PowerEdge servers, although VxRail originally incorporated Quanta servers until the Dell-EMC acquisition closed last September. VxRail launched just after VMware upgraded vSAN to version 6.2, which added data reduction and other capabilities that improved its performance with flash storage. Dell EMC VxRail senior vice presidentGil Shneorson said 60% of VxRail sales have been on all-flash appliances.
Were definitely seeing the combination of hyper-converged and all-flash taking off in a meaningful way, he said.
Now VxRail is an option for Dell EMC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud(EHC) customers. EHC is a set of applications and services running on Dell EMC hardware that provide automation, orchestration and self-service features. The software includes VMware vRealize cloud management, ViPR Controller and PowerPath/VE storage management, and EMC Storage Analytics.
Other EHC storage options include EMC VMAX, XtremIO, Unity, ScaleIO and Isilon arrays sold as VxBlock reference architectures with Dell PowerEdge servers. EHC is also available with VxRack Flex hyper-converged systems that use Dell EMC ScaleIO software instead of VxRail appliances. Data protection options include Avamar, RecoverPoint and Vplex software and Data Domain backup hardware.
Along with the Dell EMC VxRail option, the vendor is adding subscription support and encryption as a service to EHC. Dell EMC does not break out EHC financials, but Dell EMC senior vice president of hybrid cloud platforms Peter Cutts said its revenue was in the hundreds of millions of dollars last year.
Adding a Dell EMC VxRail options lets EHC customers start with as few as 200 virtual machines.
This gives customers the ability to start smaller, configure EHC as an appliance and go forward in that direction, Cutts said.
For now, organizations who want to use VxRail with EHC need to buy a new appliance. Cutts said the vendor is working on allowing customers to convert existing VxRail appliances to EHC but that is not yet an option.
Using VxRail as part of EHC makes sense as vendors begin to position hyper-converged systems as enterprise cloud building blocks. Hyper-converged market leader Nutanix now positions its appliances that way, emphasizing its software stacks ability to move data from any application, hypervisor or cloud to any other application, hypervisor or cloud. Nutanix is VxRails chief competitor.
Weve seen requests for more data center-type features and functionality, Shneorson said. VxRail is being put into data centers in much larger clusters than we originally anticipated. Were seeing a shift from an initial focus on remote offices and test/dev to mission critical data center use.
But unlike Nutanix, Dell EMC still also sells traditional storage. So Shneorson admits hyper-converged is not a universal answer because not every organization wants to scale their storage and compute in lockstep.
Its a matter of economics, he said. The advantage of hyper-converged is you can start small and grow in small increments. But some customers environments are already large and predictable in growth. By using shared storage you can get any ratio of CPU to disk. With hyper-converged, there is always a set ratio of CPU to disk. If you want massive amounts of storage with a small amount of CPUs for example, you would be better served by a traditional architecture.
Link:
Dell EMC VxRail hitches ride on Enterprise Hybrid Cloud - TechTarget (blog)
NEW DELHI: The state-owned AAI, along with International Air Transport Association (IATA), today launched its e-billing solution for airport operators and air navigation services providers across the world.
Developed in-house, the electronic billing solution for data, e-invoicing and collection of tariff from the airlines is being used by the AAI for several years now.
The e-billing solution, "SKYREV360" will help airport operators and air navigation services providers worldwide to overcome the issues of revenue leakages, besides reducing redundancies, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said in a release.
The suite, launched here today by Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapthi Raju, comprises data gathering, invoicing and collection. It is compatible with all radar systems in the world and can be hosted on cloud servers too.
This will also help in the reduction in disputes, easy integration with all external systems and curtailing the debt collection period to the minimum.
The launch of the e-billing solution for global clients is aimed at shoring up Airports Authority of India's revenue, an official press statement said.
Originally posted here:
AAI, IATA launch e-billing solution for airport operators - Economic Times
Every time I come back to India, the thing that grabs you is the entrepreneurial spirit of the place. Ive met a whole bunch of startups doing really exciting work, remarked Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella as he took the stage with Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys and chairperson and co-founder of EkStep Foundation at an event in Bengaluru.
Here are some of the highlights from the session that also included a special guest and announcement at the end.
Referring to Nilekanis work with Aadhaar, Infosys, and other projects, Nadella noted that he personified the need for the country to create more products. Nadella then asked, "If you were starting up again today, what would you do now?"Nilekani joked, "Very excited by what is happening now. Wish I was 30 years younger."
Nilekani went on to saythat there is a lot more power for startups now to disrupt existing industries or create new ones. A key takeaway of his Aadhaar experience was that while building new technologies, startups and enterprises have two choices:
Build something in-depth that has a lot of impact on 50 million people, or do something less in-depth that has an impact on one billion people.
Nilekani noted that there were a lot of interesting developments in the field of AI, with the power and capabilities it has to offer. Talking about Aadhaar, Nilekani said that he and his team were inspired by the widespread adoption of internet and APIs. Both technologies were able to hit a billion people quite quickly.
Extolling Microsoft for its experience in developing a suite of products like Office 365 and others, Nilekani asked, "So what platforms is Nadellaexcited about now?"
Nadella answered, We fundamentally think of ourselves as a platform company.
He said that Microsoft is focusing on multiple areas ranging from artificial intelligence to natural language processing and even augmented reality, with their latest product Hololens. Nadella also considers Cortana, Microsoft's virtual assistant, to be a third run time. He explained that a devices operating system was the first run time, browsers were the second run time, and now agents like Cortana which understand and know your work are third run times. Nadella noted,
"But the ultimate test going forward will be in really understanding natural language.For all the advantages in human computer interface, there is nothing to beat language. That is the ultimate test.
Talking about how new-age learning tools can impact different sectors from education to healthcare, Nadella said,
I'm an electrical engineer who never understood Maxwells equations Ive thought if there were better learning tools
Nilekani interrupted Nadellas train of thought here and quipped,
Then you would nothave ended up at Microsoft!
Nilekani observed that unless one is building technology at scale, it is difficult to see the real benefits. Aadhaar crossed a user base of one billion in about six years and the only other players who can claim such a feat are in Silicon Valley and Seattle.
Nilekani also noted that a well-built system at scale can decrease the cost and time involved in customer acquisition and cited the example of how Reliance Jio went about doing their KYC through Aadhaar. The government benefits too as it can better identify people and also save manpower and time in the long run. He said,
"Data can be a source of individual empowerment. But for that, one needs necessary architecture. If all these technologies can be used for empowerment it will be great. In the West, there is a fear that AI will come out on top. Hence there is some pushback."
Agreeing with Nilekani, Nadella added, Data is the new natural resource that is unevenly spread.
Talking about network effects and its benefits, Nadella said that whatever one is building as a platform should function as a resource for someone else building a platform too. For example, if someone wanted to sign up for Microsofts services like Office 365, providing them an Aadhaar-enabled login would speed up the process.
Just five days ago, Microsoft had also announced that it aims to combine the cloud, AI, research, and its industry expertise to transform healthcare with its Healthcare NExT initiative, in collaboration with UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center).
Nadella and Nilekani agreed that providing reliable cloud infrastructure is important. Any startup that wants to build on the India Stack or for other large projects will have the necessary infrastructure in place.Nadella cited the example of how the government in Andhra Pradesh leveraged machine learning (ML) to detect dropouts and help bring them back to school. Similar strategies are now spreading to Jharkhand and Punjab.
Talking about the enlightened use of infrastructure, Nadella also noted that the election commission of Tamil Nadu leveraged Microsofts public cloud, Azure. In the past, one would build all the servers, but in this case, Tamil Nadu was able to quickly hydrate and dehydrate their servers leveraging cloud computing services.
Talking about issues like public-private partnership and the privacy of data, Nadella asked Nilekani about the different roles at play here. Nilekani noted that the important question here was,
What is government infrastructure and where does it end and where does private innovation start?
Nilekani noted that the Aadhaar Bill is being passed which includes all the necessary frameworks, policies, and also a privacy criterion. Given the financial strength and other factors, Nilekani remarked, The government is best suited to build such infrastructure. They will obviously keep privacy in mind.
There is then the need to create a level playing field so that enterprises small and big can leverage the existing infrastructure.
Nilekani noted that minimalism is an important concept when building platforms for scale. Private companies cant build it in the same way as the government as they need to add an extra layer to earn revenue. Government bodies, though, could build without having those concerns, for the short term. The goal should be to build a solution that can be hard coded and spread quickly.Sharing one example, Nilekani said,
"We had only four data fields in Aadhaar. Somebody else who had 22 fields claimed to be superior and questioned us as to what kind of Mickey Mouse stuff we were building.But to work at scale, minimalism is needed for mass adoption."
Talking about the Indian startup ecosystem, Nadella observed that the Indian market washuge and he wasencouraged by both the small startups and the bigger ones that were innovating and adopting the cloud. He noted,
"Great to come to India and see convoluted neural nets being used to solve problems."
Having interacted with many startups and seeing more than 2,000 of them leverage Microsofts cloud services, he found the entrepreneurial energy remarkable. He said he was also encouraged by how Indian startups wereable to raise funding from local and international funds and also enthused by the startups he met at Microsofts own accelerator.
Nadella then introduced Binny Bansal, Flipkart Group CEO, and said,
"We started with Nandan Nilekani who brought the first wave of the Indian startup wave. Now I want to end our session by introducing another entrepreneur who got the second wave of Indian startups started Binny Bansal from Flipkart."
Binny said that with Flipkart about to complete 10 years of its existence, they are happy to have taken e-commerce to the first 50 million customers in the country. Bansal noted, As we think about the next 10 years, the question is: how do you scale this number to 10x? Delighted to partner with Microsoft. With our combined strength and understanding of the e-commerce market, we can reach higher.
Leveraging AI for a better experience: Going forward, Bansal aims to leverage their in-house capabilities with Microsoft's AI strength to better recommend the right products to their e-commerce customers. He sees a big opportunity for this in the fashion segment for Myntra.
Bansal also noted,
Technology is a great leveller: Today someone sitting in a remote part of India can access a lakh of products. The same variety of products is also available to someone in a big city. This wasn't possible 10 years ago....The opportunities are limitless As Nandan once famously said, The world is flat I believe that technology is the bulldozer.
Talking about AI, Nadella said that he sees the sector bringing down costs and making industries like eye care and education more widespread and affordable.According to him, though, the most exciting thing in the last five years has been the specialised branch of deep neural networks that are fundamentally giving us human perception. He said,
We wont go back to the AI winter as long we don't overhype it and work on real-world applications. But we need to be mindful of the impact of AI on jobs. That is why LinkedIn and LinkedIn learning are working to help people who have to change professions or get mid-skilled jobs.
Nadella and Nilekani agreed that the classical way to fix the job issue was to have more hospitals for more doctors, etc., but the only way to deliver this in a realistic timeline is by leveraging AI as a strategic tool to provide personalised health, education, and financial services, etc. Nilekani noted,
Predicting the skills needed for mid-level jobs in the future won't be easy. To better prepare people, we will need to help them get life-long learning skills.
Originally posted here:
The centre of entrepreneurial energy for us is all around cloud: Satya Nadella - YourStory.com
In 2017, we need to move past the debate over backdoors.
By Kevin Bankston
Since last summer, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey has been signaling his intent to make 2017 the year we have an adult conversation about encryption technologys impact on law enforcement investigations. Hes probably going to get his wish, but if a new report from leaders in Congress is any indication, its not going to be the conversation he wants. Rather, as that new report from the House working group investigating the encryption issue recognizes, having the adult conversation about encryption means talking about how law enforcement can adapt to a world where encryption is more common, rather than wrongheadedly forcing the technology to adapt to law enforcements needs.
To Comey, being adult about encryption apparently means agreeing with his conclusion that the existence of unbreakable encryptionfor example, the full-disk encryption that protects your iPhone against anyone who doesnt have your passcode, or the end-to-end encryption that protects your iMessages and Whatsapp texts as they cross the Internetposes an unacceptable threat to law and order. Being an adult, to Comey, means accepting the argument that technology companies should design their products to ensure that the government can access any data it needs in an investigation, whether by building (in the words of his opponents) a backdoor into strongly encrypted products, or by not deploying that encryption in the first place. Being an adult, to Comey, means supporting efforts to legally require tech companies to ensure government access, if they wont do it voluntarily.
When Comey insists that we havent yet had the adult conversation on this issue, hes insulting everyone who has disagreed with himwhich is almost everyone whos voiced an opinion on the subject, that disagreement flowing in an endless stream of expert white papers (issued by adult institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University), editorials, coalition letters, Congressional testimony, National Academies of Sciences proceedings, and more.
Ever since this latest debate over encryption was first sparked in the fall of 2014, when Apple announced that new iPhones would be completely encrypted by defaulta debate that peaked with last years court fight between Apple and the FBI over the locked iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shootersthe clear consensus among experts has been that any kind of mandate on companies to weaken their products security to ensure government access to encrypted data would be devastating to cybersecurity and to the international competitiveness of United States tech companies. It would also be futile, since U.S. companies dont have a monopoly on the technology, making it trivial for bad guys to obtain strong encryption products, no matter what Congress does. It is these exact same arguments that won the day in the Crypto Wars of the 90s when a similar policy debate over encryption arose.
Importantly, its not just privacy advocates and privacy-minded tech experts making these arguments. Opposition to backdoors has been voiced by leaders from the national security and law enforcement establishmentall of them indisputably adults!such as former NSA director and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, former NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden, former DHS secretary Michael Chertoff, andin agreement with his fellow members in President Obamas handpicked Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologiesformer CIA Director Michael Morrell. And thats just the Michaels! The list of expert adults that have disagreed with Comey at this point is staggeringly long.
Despite that broad consensus, Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein floated draft legislation last year that would broadly require any provider of any encrypted product or service to be able to produce any encrypted data on demand. Although that bill was almost universally panned at the time, Comey is probably hoping that similar legislation will have a better chance this yearespecially if he has the support of a new Attorney General and a new President that appear to share his views, rather than being held back by an Obama administration that chose not to pursue a legislative solution. (Notably, the fact that the Trump administration seems likely to support backdoors is all the more ironic and hypocritical considering this weeks report that high-level Trump aidesalong with key staff for Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and many other political figuresare now using the end-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal for fear of being hacked.)
Still, Comey likely will not get his wish, because the long list of people who disagree with him just got longer: As Congress was preparing to depart for its winter holiday, a House Congressional working group tasked with examining the issue of encryption technologys impact on law enforcement issued a year-end report that signaled a major shift in the crypto debate. The working group, established in May as a collaboration between members of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Energy & Commerce Committee, had spent many months meeting with law enforcement, the intelligence community, privacy advocates, security experts, and tech companies, to help guide its bipartisan investigation. The report, signed off on by ten House members including the top Republican and top Democrat on each of the two investigating committees, came to an unequivocal conclusion: Congress should not weaken this vital technology because doing so works against the national interest, but should instead work to help law enforcement find new ways to adapt to the changing technological landscape.
In particular, the reports authors arrived at four observations, echoing the arguments of Comeys prior opponents: Weakening encryption goes against the national interest because it would damage cybersecurity and the tech economy; encryption is widely available and often open source, such that U.S. legislation would not prevent bad actors from using the technology; there is no one-size-fits-all fix for the challenges that encryption poses for law enforcement; and that greater cooperation and communication between companies and law enforcement will be important going forward and should be encouraged. As next steps, they suggest further investigation into avenues other than backdoors that can help address the challenges that encryption poses to government investigators, including working to ensure that all levels of law enforcement have the information and technical capacity they need to make full use of the wide variety of data that is available to them even without backdoors.
In other words, the key committees in the House that have jurisdiction over the encryption issue have sent a clear signal to Comey, and to his allies in the Senate like Feinstein and Burr: Sorry, but the House is definitely not interested in legislating to require backdoors. How else can we help you? Though news of the report was somewhat buried due to the holiday timing, that signal has now been heard loud and clear across Washington, DC. The House does not want to waste any more time on childish bickering over backdoors that essentially everyone but the FBI agrees are a bad idea. In 2017, it wants to have the adult conversation that moves beyond backdoors.
Lets hope Comey is listening.
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What It Means to Have an 'Adult' Conversation on Encryption - Pacific Standard
Read More..Encryption app leaks sensitive info
An encrypted messaging app called Confide is being used in Washington DC by White House staffers to leak embarrassing or sensitive information.
Since US President Donald Trump's inauguration, a steady stream of leaks have been provided by the White House including reports of national security adviser Michael Flynn's unauthorised talks with Russia.
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump vowed to prosecute leakers. We are looking into this very seriously. It's a criminal act, Trump said. He has reportedly ordered an internal investigation to identify how sensitive information about his calls with foreign leaders and national security matters made their way to the press.
Messages sent via the Confide app are automatically deleted, leaving virtually no paper trail.
According to Jon Brod, cofounder and president of Confide, once messages are read, they vanish without a trace. The message is gone forever, it's deleted from our servers, you can't archive, print it, save it, cut and paste it. Again, just like the spoken word, it disappears, Brod said.
The message self-destructs so I can't go back in and try to piece together a number of screenshots into the actual message, and it notifies both the sender and the recipient that a screenshot was attempted, Brod continued.
White House staffers, and possibly other government officials and business executives, worried about being caught leaking information to the media have adopted this app.
They are likely violating the law if they are revealing that information through any means, whether it's through an email or through a disappearing chat app, said Carrie Cordero, a former national security lawyer at the Justice Department.
Confide's privacy features won't totally protect leakers since it still requires them to register their identities.
Sometimes these apps give users a false confidence that they will never be able to be traced, said Cordero. And although the communication in this particular app might disappear, that doesn't mean that the user is necessarily not able to be traced in any way.
Some security researchers are doubtful about Confide's cryptography since the app is not open-source and may use old protocols. Confide's encryption is closed source and proprietary, so no one outside the company knows what's going on within the app. The encryption protocol is based on the PGP standard and the app's network connection security relies on recommended best practices.
One key is always, do you make code publicly available that's been audited where features have been inspected by the security community so that it can arrive at some consensus, says Electronic Frontier Foundation legal fellow Aaron Mackey. My understanding with Confide, at least right now, is that it's not clear whether that's occurred.
Since its inception in 2013, Confide has seen a spike in usage after key security events took place such as the Celebgate scandal, the Sony Pictures hack in 2014, the Russian group leak of thousands of emails belonging to the DNC in 2016 and, of course, the 2016 US presidential election.
Using an encrypted messaging app such as Confide can pose legal concerns. It is the user's responsibility to make sure they abide by the law and use the app strictly for personal communications.
See the original post here:
Confide in me! Encryption app leaks sensitive info from Washington DC - SC Magazine UK
Read More..When World Wide Web was created in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, its purpose was for the web technology to be available to everyone, always, without any patents or royalties. Recently, as the Internet becomes more and more centralized, the creator of the Internet and other people at its heart start calling for a revolution in order to rethink the way that Internet works.
A lot has happened in the years of Internets existence, but the pattern is clear: the tool that was meant to bring profound advance for liberty is too often used by governments and corporations as a means of control. Russia and UK, for example, have passed new intrusive surveillance laws, and China and Vietnam block major websites from their citizens; users are being tracked by corporations and advertisers, and their data is being sold to third parties; Internet giants like Google and Facebook yield big power over the data of all the global Internet users.
Tim Berners-Lee publically speaks against such invasive surveillance laws as UKs Snoopers Charter. According to him and other web activists, the only way to give Internet its original purpose is decentralization and encryption. Some of the so-called Web 3.0 projects are already attracting investors with their idea of more privacy and security.
Blockstack is a startup that is working on open-source software to create a kind of parallel webone powered by the bitcoin blockchain. It hopes to give users more control of their data by avoiding storage with any third-parties. Later this year, Blockstack is planning to release software that will allow surfing this alternative Internet with a regular browser. Its users will generate data by using various services, but the data will not be stored in any of those service databases.
Another example of initiatives aimed at decentralizing the web is MaidSafe, a startup which has spent a decade building a decentralized p2p network, and now allows to create safe websites, store data, host websites and more.
Web 3.0, which could be defined as a platform for decentralized apps, might be the future of the Internet, since decentralization idea is gaining popularity among mainstream developer community. Till then, Internet users must be careful about their Internet privacy, and take initiative to implement available encryption tools.
There already are many existing ways to encrypt ones Internet activities: secure email service providers, such as ProtonMail, or encrypted messaging apps, such as Signal.
One of the must-have encryption services is a VPN (Virtual Private Network). A VPN encrypts all data between a users computer and a VPN server into a secure tunnel. It is important to choose a VPN like NordVPN that doesnt keep any customer logs, offers secure encryption protocols and advanced security solutions like DoubleVPN. A VPN hides a users IP address, disguising the real location, thus giving the user a great layer of protection online from unwanted security threats and/ or surveillance.
At the moment, encryptionbe it via encrypted email, messaging or VPN technologyremains the most secure tool available to protect ones online privacy and security.
For more information, please visit http://www.nordvpn.com.
World Wide Web Creator Calls for Internet Decentralization & Encryption was last modified: February 21st, 2017 by Press Release
Read the original:
World Wide Web Creator Calls for Internet Decentralization & Encryption - The Data Center Journal
Read More..Slide: 1 / of 1. Caption: Confide
In the four tumultuous weeks since President Donald Trumps inauguration, the White House has provided a steady stream of leaks. Some are mostly innocuous, like how Trump spends his solitary hours. Others, including reports of national security adviser Michael Flynns unauthorized talks with Russia, have proven devastating. In response, Trump has launched an investigation, and expressed his displeasure in a tweet: Why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington?
The answer may have to do with uncertainty and unrest inside the administration, as well as the presidents ongoing attacks against the intelligence community. But it doesnt hurt that every White House and Congressional staffer has tools to facilitate secure communication in their pocket or bag. Specifically, multiple reports indicate that Republican operatives and White House staffers are using the end-to-end encrypted messaging app Confide, which touts disappearing messages and anti-screenshot features, to chat privately without a trace.
The ability to communicate without fear of reprisal may have helped illuminate the Trump administrations darkest corners. But that same time, anonymity rings alarms for transparency advocates. The same technology that exposes secrets also enables them, a tension thats not easy to resolve.
Confide launched in 2013 as a secure app for executives looking to trade gossip and talk shop without creating a digital trail. The service uses a proprietary encryption protocol, what the company describes as military-grade end-to-end encryption. Its marquee feature, self-destructing messages, appears on similar services like Snapchat, but Confides appeal lies in its promise of more robust protections.
Its worth noting, though, that unlike other secure messaging apps, like standard-bearer Signal, Confides encryption is closed source and proprietary, meaning no one outside the company knows whats going on under the hood of the app. Company president Jon Brod says that Confide bases its encryption protocol on the widely used PGP standard, and that the apps network connection security relies on recommended best practices like Transport Socket Layer (TLS). Brod did not respond to questions, though, about whether Confide has ever opened its code base to be independently audited by a third party.
One key is always, do you make code publicly available thats been audited where features have been inspected by the security community so that it can arrive at some consensus, says Electronic Frontier Foundation legal fellow Aaron Mackey. My understanding with Confide, at least right now, is that its not clear whether thats occurred.
Confides also not the only option in play; EPA workers have reportedly turned to Signal to discuss how to cope with an antagonistic Trump administration, to the agitation of Republican representatives.
No matter what the method, though, encrypted chat appears to have become a staple among political operativeswhich happens to raise a whole host of legal questions.
Using an app like Confide for personal communications, like keeping in touch with family members or coordinating gym trips with coworkers, is within bounds. It also, according to a recent Washington Post report, has enabled vital leaks to the media.
At this point its still possible that politicos are legitimately using Confide for personal purposes. I know people who use [Confide], but I dont know anyone whos using it who shouldnt be using it, says Scott Tranter, a founder of the political data consultancy Optimus. The people who I know use it because its secure messaging.
Its sometimes not easy, though, to separate personal conversations from those that are work-related. Where those lines blur, legal concerns arise.
If these apps are being used by White House staff, it raises very disturbing questions about compliance with the Presidential Records Act specifically, and more broadly the Federal Records Act, says David Vladeck, a communications and technology law researcher at Georgetown Law School. The whole point of these statutes is to assure that our nations history is neither lost nor manufactured, and the kinds of apps that obliterate the messages are completely incompatible with that and at odds with the law.
Confide puts the onus on its users to walk a legal line. We expect people to use Confide in a way that complies with any regulation that may be relevant to their particular situation, says Brod.
Encryption itself isnt the issue. End-to-end encrypted communication can coexist with the goals of public disclosure laws, so long as someone retains the decryption key. Using strong security for sensitive government communications makes sense and is appropriate if the parties sending and receiving the communications can still archive them.
But disappearing messages are definitionally communications that are difficult, if not impossible, to record. Plus, its hard to assess how people are using a communication service like Confide if theres no record of anything they ever sent. Since Confide is explicitly designed to eliminate a paper trail, its use creates at least the appearance of misconduct, if not the reality, says Allison Stanger, a cybersecurity fellow at the New America Foundation. Those who wanted to lock up Hillary Clinton for the use of a private email server should be very concerned about this practice.
Its a tough act to balance. Encryption-enabled leaks help hold administrations accountable, a clear public good. The challenge is preserving that level of secrecy without creating black holes where public records should be.
Read more here:
Encryption Apps Help White House Staffers Leakand Maybe Break the Law - WIRED
Read More..WhatsApp is introducing a new feature in its app called Status that uses a similar format to Snapchat Stories,TechCrunch reports. Like messaging through WhatsApp, however, Status will bring encryption to the popular format.
WhatsApp describes the new status feature as easy to use and secure:
We are excited to announce that, coinciding with WhatsApps 8th birthday on February 24, we are reinventing the status feature. Starting today, we are rolling out an update to status, which allows you to share photos and videos with your friends and contacts on WhatsApp in an easy and secure way. Yes, even your status updates are end-to-end encrypted.
Previously, WhatsApps status feature was simply text-based like older chat clients. The new version uses rich media and annotations much like Snapchat Stories. WhatsApp is owned by social network giant Facebook which similarly introduced a Snapchat Stories clone last year through Instagram.
While the new status feature is billed as secure, last monththe security of WhatsApps encryption was called into question however. WhatsApp denied reports that a backdoor was built-in for governments to access chat logs.
Earlier this month, WhatsApp took steps to improve account security with the roll out of two-step verification for users.
WhatsApp is rolling out the new featurenow. WhatsApp for iOS is a free download on the App Store.
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WhatsApp overhauling status tab with encrypted Snapchat Stories-like feature - 9 to 5 Mac
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