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Encryption Republicans Communications Networking Privacy Security Software Politics

Republicans Are Reportedly Using a Self-Destructing Message App To Avoid Leaks (theverge.com) 326

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Trump administration members and other Republicans are using the encrypted, self-destructing messaging app Confide to keep conversations private in the wake of hacks and leaks, according to Jonathan Swan and David McCabe at Axios. Axios writes that "numerous senior GOP operatives and several members of the Trump administration" have downloaded Confide, which automatically wipes messages after they're read. One operative told Axios that the app "provides some cover" for people in the party. He ties it to last year's hack of the Democratic National Committee, which led to huge and damaging information dumps of DNC emails leading up to the 2016 election. But besides outright hacks, the source also said he liked the fact that Confide makes it difficult to screenshot messages, because only a few words are shown at a time. That suggests that it's useful not just for reducing paper trails, but for stopping insiders from preserving individual messages -- especially given the steady flow of leaks that have come out since Trump took office. As Axios notes, official White House business is subject to preservation rules, although we don't know much about who's allegedly using Confide and what they're doing with it, so it's not clear whether this might run afoul of those laws. It's also difficult to say how much this is a specifically Republican phenomenon, and how much is a general move toward encryption.
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Republicans Are Reportedly Using a Self-Destructing Message App To Avoid Leaks

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09, 2017 @07:09PM (#53835903)

    it's Republicans doing it so it's OK.

  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Thursday February 09, 2017 @07:10PM (#53835909)
    Aren't they required to conduct all government business on government systems? Didn't Hilary got a whole lot of crap (and lose an election) over this?

    Welp, they're in charge so I guess they get to make the rules, but did they even bother to change the laws first?
    • by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Thursday February 09, 2017 @07:16PM (#53835969)

      Aren't they required to conduct all government business on government systems? Didn't Hilary got a whole lot of crap (and lose an election) over this?

      Welp, they're in charge so I guess they get to make the rules, but did they even bother to change the laws first?

      Trump and the GOP are hypocrites?

      That's unpossible!

      • by Gr8Apes ( 679165 ) on Thursday February 09, 2017 @07:23PM (#53836005)

        Aren't they required to conduct all government business on government systems? Didn't Hilary got a whole lot of crap (and lose an election) over this?

        Welp, they're in charge so I guess they get to make the rules, but did they even bother to change the laws first?

        Trump and the GOP are hypocrites?

        That's unpossible!

        Inconceivable!

      • by NatasRevol ( 731260 ) on Friday February 10, 2017 @12:06AM (#53837365) Journal

        It's at least unpresidented.

    • by Carewolf ( 581105 ) on Thursday February 09, 2017 @07:17PM (#53835975) Homepage

      Aren't they required to conduct all government business on government systems? Didn't Hilary got a whole lot of crap (and lose an election) over this?

      Welp, they're in charge so I guess they get to make the rules, but did they even bother to change the laws first?

      Yes, it is. And what Hillary was accused of by the Republicans.

      But.. Hillary's emails.

    • The summary points out we don't know who is communicating with who using this. So the system might be working as intended.

      Also probably one of those "It's not illegal when the president does it," type things, especially when his party is in power, is spineless, and his voters really wouldn't mind if he murdered someone on national TV.
      • You unwittingly gave him a new goal. The next time you think of something like this, please don't post it online.
        • He already claimed that; something something, broad daylight in Times Square, something second amendment something.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Aren't they required to conduct all government business on government systems?

      Yes, if it is Government business. If is GOP/politcal party business, then no.

      Didn't Hilary got a whole lot of crap (and lose an election) over this?

      Yes, because she did Government communications over non-Governmental systems.

    • by DogDude ( 805747 )
      That was a long time ago. Nobody remember back that far.
    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      No gov every wants to be caught out like Iran Contra .
      The idea that delete all does not get to all the magnetic backup tapes and the FBI still gets some data was well understood over the decades.
      So political parties use methods like a political back channel. Or some internal political party work is not the really the US gov legal effort.
      The other effort is to say the Freedom of Information Act is limited and what was the emerging National Archive and Records Administration can only look at a real gov a
      • by dbIII ( 701233 )
        As an aside North and Poindexter spending DAYS deleting emails one by one (yes there was a quicker way but they did not ask or look up the manual) would have worked with the normal backup cycle but the deletion was noticed and some tapes were put aside just in case. It took quite a few months between the deletion and the legal request for the tapes.
        So there you go people - IT folks can make a difference to expose things like North giving classified anti-tank missiles to Hezbolla less than a year after Hezb
    • Didn't Hilary got a whole lot of crap (and lose an election) over this?

      Hillary lost for several reasons (such as support for the TPP at the expense of the middle class), not just the emails. The DNC screwed themselves by picking her as the candidate; Bernie would have won.

      • by dbIII ( 701233 )
        Bernie was an outsider not a lifelong member of the party. The Democrats (the party not the people who vote democrat - annoying how I have to spell everything out) would see any win by him as a loss.
        This is not a dig at the above poster (it probably doesn't apply to them), but typically Americans are so politically naive that they even think "Atlas Shrugged" is some brilliant thing instead of a pathetic call for the implementation of Russian feudalism in a place that already has something hundreds of time
      • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday February 10, 2017 @07:24AM (#53838195)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Thursday February 09, 2017 @09:41PM (#53836799) Journal

      I think we live in an age where those breaking the rules no longer even pretend that they should. I was reading a Conservative Catholic forum a few minutes ago where they're demanding the Ninth Circuit Court justices be impeached for the audacity of challenging edicts from on high. I'm beginning to see the kinds of people that empowered the Bolsheviks, Brown Shirts, Khmer Rouge and all the other dictatorships out there, people who believe any challenge to the leader's authority is effectively a high crime.

    • hey republicans: if you are not doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide??

    • Didn't Hilary got a whole lot of crap (and lose an election) over this? ... but did they even bother to change the laws first?

      Ironically, yes. It was technically legal to host a private email server when Hillary did it (maybe violating rules that Obama put in place, maybe violating laws regarding classified information). It was made illegal after her, so they did bother to change the laws...

  • I wonder (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TFlan91 ( 2615727 ) on Thursday February 09, 2017 @07:10PM (#53835913)

    I wonder if they still want that backdoor to that encryption sitting there for someone to stumble on...

    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      How well did the NSA staff educate staff in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK or even the now trusted EU teams about state of US crypto?
      Would Germany have the ability given its funding changes?
      "Germany to pour cash into mass surveillance" (08.09.2016)
      http://www.dw.com/en/germany-t... [dw.com]
      "particularly decrypting what the report calls "non-standardized telecommunications,""

      Other nations still hire their crypto experts on merit so the institutional expertise in say Australia, the GCHQ is still good
  • If you just can't be upright and legal and not message stuff you can't talk about or don't want to admit in public it seems like a 'decent' solution.
    God forbid they just say what they mean and stand behind it like regular human beings.

  • by ClickOnThis ( 137803 ) on Thursday February 09, 2017 @07:22PM (#53835999) Journal

    "This phone will self-destruct in 5 seconds. Good luck, Kellyanne."

  • Not sure if I should be proud of them for learning cracker rule #1 (cover your tracks).. Or if I should be scared because they learned rule #1.
    • They learned nothing, that's #1 in any crook's book.

      So yes, I believe when Nixon says "I'm not a crook". Because he failed badly at this.

  • ... "Donald Trump." However, the guy's a pisser, so he leaks.

  • As if this company doesnt archive all messages. I would.
  • .... that Confide hasn't been served a cease and desist notice by Paramount Studios [imdb.com].

  • by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Thursday February 09, 2017 @08:31PM (#53836363)

    This note7 will Self Destruct in 5 seconds!

  • by HalAtWork ( 926717 ) on Thursday February 09, 2017 @08:53PM (#53836527)

    "If you're doing nothing wrong then you've got nothing to hide"... is that how the saying goes?

  • Errrrrrrr (Score:4, Insightful)

    by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Thursday February 09, 2017 @09:07PM (#53836609) Journal

    Quick question: Doesn't this violate the government regulations regarding destruction of records?

    https://www.justice.gov/usam/c... [justice.gov]
    and:
    https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen... [ed.gov]

    After all, if Trump’s tweets are now presidential records (and, by law, they are), wouldn't these also be included under those rules?

    "Federal records may not be destroyed-except in accordance with the procedures described in Chapter 33 of Title 44, United States Code. These procedures allow for records destruction only under the authority of a records disposition schedule approved by the Archivist of the United States. NARA issues a General Records Schedule (GRS) that gives record descriptions of records that are common to most Federal agencies and authorizes record disposals for temporary records."

    Yes, yes, I know, "But Hillary Hillary Hillary....", right, I get it, but if her doing it was illegal (and I think it was), how can this be legal?

  • Wouldn't this self destructing email thingie have set her bathroom on fire? Or at least set the wiping cloth on fire?

  • ...will take a safer approach, by self-destroying the whole party.

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