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The proposal is included in a document published by the Home Office (PDF). In that document, the Home Office proposes two legislative measures that it says could be used to improve law enforcement’s response to serious and organized crime, and is seeking input from law enforcement, businesses, lawyers, civil liberties NGOs, and the wider public. […] The first measure looks to create new criminal offenses on the “making, modifying, supply, offering to supply and possession of articles for use in serious crime.” The document points to several specific items: vehicle concealments used to hide illicit goods; digital templates for 3D-printing firearms; pill presses used in the drug trade; and “sophisticated encrypted communication devices used to facilitate organized crime.” In other words, this change would criminalize owning an encrypted phone, selling one, or making one for use in crime, a crime in itself. […]
With encrypted phones, the Home Office writes that both the encryption itself and modifications made to the phones are creating “considerable barriers” to law enforcement. Typically, phones from this industry use end-to-end encryption, meaning that messages are encrypted before leaving the device, rendering any interception by law enforcement ineffective. (Multiple agencies have instead found misconfigurations in how companies’ encryption works, or hacked into firms, to circumvent this protection). Encrypted phone companies sometimes physically remove the microphone, camera, and GPS functionality from handsets too. Often distributors sell these phones for thousands of dollars for yearly subscriptions. Given that price, the Home Office says it is “harder to foresee a need for anyone to use them for legitimate, legal reasons.” The Home Office adds that under one option for legislation, laws could still criminalize people who did not suspect the technology would be used for serious crime, simply because the technology is so “closely associated with serious crime.” Potential signs could include someone paying for a phone “through means which disguise the identity of the payer,” the document reads. Often distributors sell phones for Bitcoin or cash, according to multiple encrypted phone sellers that spoke to Motherboard. The document says “the provisions will not apply to commercially available mobile phones nor the encrypted messaging apps available on them.” But the Home Office does not yet have a settled definition of what encompasses “sophisticated encrypted communication devices,” leaving open the question of what exactly the UK would be prepared to charge a person for possessing or selling.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The Russian government has blocked another encrypted email provider, according to a Russian digital rights organization and the email provider. Last Wednesday, Roskomsvoboda, which describes itself as “the first Russian public organization active in the field of protecting digital rights and expanding digital opportunities,” reported that an unknown Russian state organization ordered the block of […]
Russia is blocking encrypted email startup Skiff by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai originally published on TechCrunch
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Daily Crunch: Hackers pinched LastPass customers’ encrypted password vaults, parent company admits by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch
You no longer have to give up the privacy of end-to-end encryption in Facebook Messenger just to get the creature comforts you take for granted. Meta is bringing several common features to encrypted chats. You can now choose themes, set profiles for group conversations and use custom emoji as well as reactions. Active status and web link previews now work in this more secure mode, while the Android crowd can take advantage of floating Bubbles to talk while they’re using other apps.
You’re more likely to use encrypted chats, too. Meta is expanding tests that make encryption the default for Facebook Messenger. You’ll see the changes to some conversation threads in the “next few months,” the company says. If you’re part of the test, you’ll get a notification in a relevant thread.
Meta started testing default encryption last August. At the time, it said it hoped to roll out the Facebook Messenger upgrade sometime in 2023. The social media firm didn’t provide an updated timeline, but the feature expansion takes Meta considerably closer to that goal — there’s considerably more parity with unencrypted chats. Encrypted Messenger caught up on some features at the start of 2022, but was still well behind its less secure counterpart.
Not everyone will be happy. Officials in the US, UK and elsewhere have attacked end-to-end encryption. They’re concerned criminals could use encrypted chats to discuss plans beyond the reach of law enforcement and surveillance agencies. Politicians, such as former US Attorney General Bill Barr, have called on Meta to weaken encryption by creating “backdoors.” Meta has refused to back down, though, and it’s evident that the company is determined to bolster privacy across its products.
LastPass has a doozy of an updated announcement about a recent data breach: the company — which promises to keep all your passwords in one, secure place — is now saying that hackers were able to “copy a backup of customer vault data,” meaning they theoretically now have access to all those passwords if they can crack the stolen vaults (via TechCrunch).
If you have an account you use to store passwords and login information on LastPass, or you used to have one and hadn’t deleted it before this fall, your password vault may be in hackers’ hands. Still, the company claims you might be safe if you have a strong master password and its most recent default settings. However, if you have a weak master password or less security, the company…