Most secure phones/chats?

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Not related with this forum, but it is a very interesting topic for me. There are a few developers selling encrypted chats. (EncroChat,SkyEcc,CopperheadOS etc)
Do you really think these are safe? What if they sell your information to government or maybe they are owned by the government?
Always been very sceptical for this and never found an answer.
 
Do you really think these are safe?
Always been very sceptical for this and never found an answer.

This was in the news today

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/...er-a-global-phone-network-for-organised-crime
Unbeknownst to the tens of thousands of other alleged users, their messages weren't really secure. French authorities had penetrated the network, leveraged that access to install a technical tool in what appears to be a mass hacking operation, and had been quietly reading the users' communications for months. Investigators then shared those messages with agencies around Europe.
 
telegram or signal is good enough for most people buying a secure phone is useless for most
 
Telegram is great, you can also, use, utox and even use a PGP encryption or even get Pigeon
 
This was in the news today

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/...er-a-global-phone-network-for-organised-crime
Unbeknownst to the tens of thousands of other alleged users, their messages weren't really secure. French authorities had penetrated the network, leveraged that access to install a technical tool in what appears to be a mass hacking operation, and had been quietly reading the users' communications for months. Investigators then shared those messages with agencies around Europe.
Fucking hell mate. Whoever penetrated them is a genius. I had a lecture in school years ago speaking about how safe is whatsapp and I thought it was almost impossible for a normal/advanced security guy or developer to penetrate it. But this is on another level...
telegram or signal is good enough for most people buying a secure phone is useless for most
Signal got alot of fame now that anonymous advertised them in Twitter
Telegram is great, you can also, use, utox and even use a PGP encryption or even get Pigeon
I ve been using telegram for a while not only that its secure but you can send videos and photos in highest quality
 
Stay away from Copperhead OS. For a custom rom Graphene can't be beat and Replicant would be #2.

Lots of good e2e encrypted apps out there. I like the open source ones.
 
I heard last year from a service member that the US Army explicitly prohibited them from using Whatsapp due to security concerns and eavesdropping by some interested rogue parties. I would avoid Whatsapp by all means.

You should only look for messaging solutions with true end-to-end encryption. If you don't know what that is, research it, but it is your best means of securing communications between you and your recipient(s).

Signal claims to employ end-to-end encryption. It's not important to me so I have not spent time confirming the veracity of that claim. Look for security researchers and independent third-party reviews.
 
I think the encrochat story that has come out in the past week shows that it's a lot more difficult to remain anonymous than many may initially assumed. From a logical point this makes sense, that's how they catch people who abuse minors or have such sensitive content on their computers. It still does leave one question unanswered though. Can you ever really be truly anonymous?

Was this a privacy breach as the news claim or was there an informer in the midst of this crime network? The messages may self destruct after a certain time but if there was somebody working undercover they could have saved it prior to that occurring. We assume we live in a free society without government monitoring like they do in China but it appears the only difference between China and the west is that they are more open about it.

To answer your question, only time will tell if they are truly safe. And sometimes the government may be monitoring you but chose not to bother to take action. You'll never truly know unless you commit an offence that they feel requires punitive action. No company can truly be trusted, only thing you can do is find a way to create your own network and you could be opening yourself up to be exploited/hacked by somebody else.
 
I'd probably use Signal/Wickr messaging apps with a telephone bought in cash (prepaid or acquired on craigslist with respective burner email created through tor on public wifi)

True privacy is hard with phones, if someone with enough money truly wants to track you down they will
 
Was this a privacy breach as the news claim or was there an informer in the midst of this crime network?

It wasn't actually that impressive. All they did was create a hack for the phones and then force the phone network provider to transmit it without telling the company that was running the service.
 
EncroChat is legit a scam to be honest. First off; you can't talk with anyone that doesn't have Encro, so what's really the point? Then you and your little organization all have to buy phones from them, and those phones aren't cheap...

Rather look up guides on the darknet to encrypt your phone by yourself.

I wouldn't trust worldwide messengers, even though they say they're end-to-end encrypted. If I had to choose one, I guess I'd choose ICQ, seen AK-47 and rocket launchers for sale on there, guessing it's quite safe then...
 
The thing with encrochat is they got their update server compromised.

This raises a whole lot of questions and newish fields of attack.

Problem is why would worldclass cryptographers work with criminals when they can get paid a lot more working for nation-states.

If you have the skills theirs no point in going into criminality.
 
It wasn't actually that impressive. All they did was create a hack for the phones and then force the phone network provider to transmit it without telling the company that was running the service.

So the government just bruteforced their way into a company's service. Impressive maybe not, it does raise a concerning precedent however.
EncroChat is legit a scam to be honest. First off; you can't talk with anyone that doesn't have Encro, so what's really the point? Then you and your little organization all have to buy phones from them, and those phones aren't cheap...

Rather look up guides on the darknet to encrypt your phone by yourself.

I wouldn't trust worldwide messengers, even though they say they're end-to-end encrypted. If I had to choose one, I guess I'd choose ICQ, seen AK-47 and rocket launchers for sale on there, guessing it's quite safe then...

The whole point is that people want something completely exclusive that isn't just encrypted by software but hardware also. So they are happy to pay a premium for that, especially high-level drug dealers who likely earn upwards of £2000/$2400 in a week.

What device would they use to look up such stuff without implicating themselves? There's many questions I have but not enough answers. This was a very complicated operation involving governments of multiple nations.
 
The whole point is that people want something completely exclusive that isn't just encrypted by software but hardware also. So they are happy to pay a premium for that, especially high-level drug dealers who likely earn upwards of £2000/$2400 in a week.

What device would they use to look up such stuff without implicating themselves? There's many questions I have but not enough answers. This was a very complicated operation involving governments of multiple nations.
You think it's alright for a company to charge 1500$ for a phone that does nothing besides call encrypted? Basically preying on the criminal underworld only. I wouldn't trust such a company with my details, that's for sure.

I'd rather implement it myself on a regular android phone. But then again, drug dealers ain't that smart usually
 
You think it's alright for a company to charge 1500$ for a phone that does nothing besides call encrypted? Basically preying on the criminal underworld only. I wouldn't trust such a company with my details, that's for sure.

I'd rather implement it myself on a regular android phone. But then again, drug dealers ain't that smart usually

Personally no but the customers know what they are getting. They are free to choose not to pay and use another service. Criminals are no victims, they know what they are getting into lol. My only concern would be if the service providers are double crossing, and selling them a product and then exposing them to government officials whilst accepting their money. That's just wrong, even if it gets "justice" done.

Skeptical (I was going to say sensible but it is really sensible to be a criminal?) criminals wouldn't put so much information out there and would choose to meet in public rather than communicate on any device, I guess these people just got too greedy and ambitious in the lockdown. I do agree that using a normal phone brings less attention to yourself since you are part of a larger network but also means you could be more exposed.
 
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