Signal, a famous correspondent application, entered the spotlight this week after reports that many of the senior Trump administration officials had used the tool to make war planning – including a journalist in a group of messages.
The application, which started in 2014 and has hundreds of millions of users, is popular among journalists, activists, privacy experts and politicians – anyone who wants to secure his contacts with encryption.
However, the use of the application by government officials resulted in intelligence breach that occurred outside the safe government channels that are usually used in planning made of the very classified and sensitive war. The accident raised questions about signal security and why government officials used it. (Federal officials are generally not allowed to install a signal on their government agencies.)
Here is what to know.
What is the sign used?
The reference is an encrypted messaging application that is used to communicate safely. He encrypts the messages from the end to the end, which means that what the user says is encrypted on the user’s device and it is not decoded until he reaches the recipient. This method protects the message from its objection and reading by anyone, including Internet service providers, infiltrators, or the same reference, while you are in crossing.
Users can also set signal messages to disappear after a certain period of time. Users who want to disappear their letters can run the features in the settings for each of their individual chats.
Who has the sign?
The signal is owned by an independent non -profit institution in the United States called the Al -Inshara Foundation. It is funded by donations from its users and grants.
In 2018, the Foundation began a $ 50 million donation of Brian Acton, a co -founder of WhatsApp, another correspondent platform, purchased on Facebook in 2014. Acton WhatsApp left the Signal Foundation after conflicts with Facebook, which is now known as Meta, about plans to earn money from his correspondence service.
Mr. Acton joined Moxie Marlinspike, an encryption photographer designed by the Signal Security System, to create the signal institution. The basis was organized to prevent signal from having an incentive to sell user data.
“There are many great reasons to reach the sign,” wrote Mr. Marilynbeck, who resigned from the Foundation Council in 2022, in a publication on Monday. “Now, including the opportunity of the Vice President of the United States to add you randomly to a group chat to coordinate sensitive military operations. Do not sleep on this opportunity.”
Is the sign safe?
Yes. The significant signal is the most secure messaging application in the market, due to the technology of encryption and other measures designed to secure user data.
Its basic encryption technique is open source, which means that the code has been announced and allows technicians outside non -profit organizations to examine it and determine defects. This technology has also been licensed and used by other services, such as WhatsApp.
The encryption technique was this key when the signal was a target for foreign infiltrators. Russia tried to investigate when Ukrainians use a signal, and in February, Google researchers said Russian infiltrators tried to kidnap user signal accounts. Although the second attack was effective, it succeeded by deceiving users to add Rogue devices to their signal accounts, not by breaking the signal encryption.
“Holding attacks against people who use applications and websites are a fact of life on the Internet,” said signal spokesman. “Once we learned that sign users were targeting, and how they were targeted, we provided additional guarantees and warnings within the application to help protect people from the victim of hunting attacks.”
In the event of a safety breach, the Signal is designed to keep as much as possible user data, so that the minimum information is detected. Unlike other correspondence services, the company does not store user contacts or other identification data that can indicate how a person uses the service.
This does not mean that the signal is the ideal service to connect war plans. If the user’s device is at risk, its signal messages can be read-and the use of a systematic communication system from the government that can prevent officials inadvertently, including a journalist, to discuss war planning.
Is a safe indication of text messages?
Yes, in general, although users should be keen to examine new contacts, just as they may be on any other social platform.
When adding people to their group chats, they may want to spend an additional moment to make sure that the appropriate contacts are included.