A response to recent reporting in Germany, in service of clarity and accountability:

A response to recent reporting in Germany, in service of clarity and accountability:

First, it’s important to be precise when it comes to critical infrastructure like Signal. Signal was not “hacked” — in that our encryption, infrastructure, and the integrity of the app’s code was not compromised. 1/

For the time being, please stay vigilant against phishing and account takeover attempts. Remember that no one from Signal Support will ever send you a message request or ask for your registration verification code or Signal PIN. For an added layer of protection, you can enable Registration Lock in your Signal Settings (Account -> Registration Lock). 8/

@skaphle @olliausstuhr @signalapp @Chantology
Nice strawman, but I did not claim any immunity against scams. I explicitely said, I just don't had the influence to frame it as a hack, if it happened.

Is there any OFFICIAL statement in GERMAN?

@signalapp

@skaphle
The server doesn't but the app does. Is there any reason to not want to make the app hide messages from accounts with such names?
@expertenkommision_cyberunfall @signalapp

@davep @EarthOrgUK @jtb @ahltorp @signalapp We're talking about the sector that holds our life savings and limits passwords to 8-12 alpha numeric characters and until recently no form of 2FA. Not sure why this surprises you. (If this isn't the case elsewhere, it's still the case in Japan, where I live. Not super impressed by my Canadian banks either, tbh.)

@stagerabbit @davep I think most of the banks in Sweden are at least ok in this regard. I’ve had online banking for 30 years (pre internet), and it has always been two-factor. In the beginning only pin and single-use codes, but very quickly it became smartcard-based challenge-response with pin unlock of the smartcard, so theoretically very secure.

I’ve only done hanko based banking in Japan, so I’ve never seen online banking in Japan, but that seems horrible.

@EarthOrgUK @jtb @ahltorp @davep @signalapp Both my life insurance company and my overseas bank want me to send copies of my passport and proof of address over unencrypted email. When I complain, they say I should password protect the file and send the password in a separate unencrypted email to the same address.

Even if I find a way to send it securely, based on this, I doubt they store it securely.

@stagerabbit @EarthOrgUK @jtb @ahltorp @davep @signalapp If i go to a store and get repeatedly scammed, i don't go there again. If a bank does not handle security in a proper way, I'd leave that bank(I've done that in the past). I don't get how you can stick to your bank, if you believe their security is weak. It's their core competence after all...

@yetzt rather automatically Block any accountname with Signal & Support in it?
@signalapp

@tnhd @expertenkommision_cyberunfall @signalapp "such names" is quite complicated. Is it a list? A regular expression pattern? Machine-learning? I have a whack-a-mole image in my mind when I think about it. It's a bit like spam filters in general. And in the end the scammers can just try different profile names and pictures until the filter lets it pass and it still has a reasonable air of legitimity. I'm quite skeptical that it's worth the effort.

@signalapp

First question that pops up:
Why the hell is anyone allowed to pose as something similar as „Signal support“?

Second: How is such an organisation allowed to use a system
Like Signal? How does Signal apply to the legal needs of such Orgs? It seems that there are some serious issues here because the told features of Signal stand in contrast to legal needs (audits?), but Im no expert in this topic.