Middle America's Worldview

As the Federal Government (IE: Big Brother) continues to hammer away any form of privacy,
WhatsApp is making waves.

What is WhatsApp?

By the websites defintion:

“WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS. WhatsApp Messenger is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia and yes, those phones can all message each other! Because WhatsApp Messenger uses the same internet data plan that you use for email and web browsing, there is no cost to message and stay in touch with your friends.”

“In addition to basic messaging WhatsApp users can create groups, send each other unlimited images, video and audio media messages.”

So what’s different with WhatsApp, and why the waves?

“End-to-end encryption is available when you and the people you message are on the latest versions of WhatsApp.”

This means all the messages, photos, other media sent from one user to another (with the latest version) is secure. Your privacy is safe. Think about that for a moment.

Recently the FBI is forcing Apple to create software to hack into their own system. Source:

“This is not a case about one isolated iPhone,” writes Apple attorney Marc Zwillinger in today’s brief. “Rather, this case is about the Department of Justice and the FBI seeking through the courts a dangerous power that Congress and the American people have withheld: the ability to force companies like Apple to undermine the basic security and privacy interests of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe.”

During the fight in the courts, FBI then admits it has already hacked the phone.Source:

Whoops.
My thought?  They have always had the method and means. They just wanted Apple to play along with creating a backdoor, publicly.

Now with the knowledge of the Federal Government’s ability to hack I-phones, one more privacy has been lost to America.

Which brings us back to WhatsApp.

With end to end encryption, the idea is no weak spots for the Federal Government or 3rd party to intercept your messages. This would give WhatsApp billion users the security and freedom in knowing a would be hacker is not eavesdropping.

To verify that a chat is end-to-end encrypted in WhatsApp:

• Open the chat.
• Tap on the name of the contact or group to open the contact info/group info screen.
• Tap Encryption to view the QR code and 60-digit number.

Hearing this, I had to try it out myself. The app is free, through the smartphone.

According to WhatsApp  Encryption Overview…

“Once a session has been established, clients exchange messages
that are protected with a Message Key using AES256 in CBC
mode for encryption and HMAC-SHA256 for authentication.
The Message Key changes for each message transmitted,
and is ephemeral, such that the Message Key used to
encrypt a message cannot be reconstructed from the session
state after a message has been transmitted or received.”

This means each message a new unique encryption is provided, making it more difficult to crack.

“The Message Key is derived from a sender’s Chain Key that
‘ratchets’ forward with every message sent. Additionally, a new ECDH
agreement is performed with each message roundtrip to create a new
Chain Key. This provides forward secrecy through the combination
of both an immediate “hash ratchet” and a round trip ‘DH ratchet’.”

In other words, a pretty good method to keep your conversation to you and your desired audience only.

#ThePlexusPrepper

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