French Government Releases In-house IM App To Replace WhatsApp and Telegram Use (zdnet.com) 37
A year ago, the French government unveiled its plan to build its own encrypted messenger service to ease fears that foreign entities could spy on private conversations between top officials. That app, named Tchap, is now official for Android handsets and the iPhone. From a report: A web dashboard is also in the works. Only official French government employees can sign-up for an account; however, the French government also open-sourced Tchap's source code on GitHub so other organizations can roll out their own versions of Tchap for internal use as well. Work on the app started in July 2018, and the app itself is based on Riot, a well-known open-source, self-hostable, and secure instant messaging client-server package. The app was officially developed by DINSIC (Interministerial Directorate of Digital and Information System and Communication of the State), under the supervision of ANSSI, France's National Cybersecurity Agency.
Once installed........ (Score:1)
....... the app surrenders and your phone then bursts into flames.
Re: Once installed........ (Score:1)
It doesn't bathe either.
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Marc will accept the written report. Marina and Jules will be sent in to spy.
Every French digital app will create a lot of daily paperwork.
Re: Once installed........ (Score:2)
On the bright side it did win some wars.
So no "Foreign" entities can spy on them. (Score:3)
That seems to leave quite a bit of wiggle room around French entities abilities to monitor the use of the app.
Tchap is a kinda stupid name too... I'm sure there is a committee working on that/
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That seems to leave quite a bit of wiggle room around French entities abilities to monitor the use of the app.
Tchap is a kinda stupid name too... I'm sure there is a committee working on that/
Well, 'espionage' doesn't come from Anglo Saxon. Just saying.
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Well, 'espionage' doesn't come from Anglo Saxon.
Of course not; dirty Anglo-Saxon peasants had no use for it.
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Wow did you even bother reading the first couple of lines of the summary? It's a messaging app FOR the French government.
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You have to trust somebody. The french government has decided to trust itself. That's pretty reasonable really, sure it means French government employees need to trust their own bureaucracy, and sure that trust may well be misplaced.
But seriously... french government employees on official french government business... using french government issued phones... on french government managed wireless networks, and french government regulated cellular networks...
But this app is where they're going to start worri
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You forgot French web search engine: qwant.com (although internal government searches certainly have distinct portal)
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You say that like it is a problem, as if French NatSec should not counter foreign SIGINT ops without first impeding it's own surveillance.
Not that countering foreign SIGINT ops as a goal implies enabling self-surveillance in first place, if total security achieves 1st goal better.
But I get impression you are projecting from your own consumer interest ignoring context this is only for official employee usage.
I assume it's obvious if one opposes aims of French NatSec state, don't expect to freely pursue one's
There are two problems (Score:2, Insightful)
and they are Android, and iOS. When the U.S. government wants to get inside a new crypto chat app, they just send a new court-and-gag-order to the handful of relevant Apple or Google employees to obtain the source code, modify it, stick it back in the system, and distribute that modified version of the app to any phone that can be determined to be of interest, typically based on its location, what networks it uses, or other account information on the phone.
Have you ever wondered why Signal, Telegram, Silent
Re: There are two problems (Score:1)
Android has/should have protection against this. The new package should be similary signed as the older official one. If the signature changes, you cannot install it. Also the modified package has different sha/md5 hashes so the original developer can easily tell if his/her app was hijacked. So can the ordinary user.
I am by no means an android dev or something of the sorts, so please take this with a grain of salt.
Re: There are two problems (Score:2)
Also just side load it through their own controlled 'store'. iPhones are a bigger security problem but no one would use for anything sensitive anyway
Already hacked (Score:1)
https://thehackernews.com/2019/04/france-Tchap-secure-messenger.html
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When I open a Slashdot page I get hit with a modal "We Value Your Privacy" dialog. If Slashdot values my privacy they wouldn't be monitoring web pages so as to bombard me with meaningless crap.
uBlock Origin is only blocking 19 items on this page, Privacy Badger is blocking 3. /s
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Ublock EULOGY by Google. Ublock origin is dead. Google killed UBlock origin https://www.bleepingcomputer.c... [bleepingcomputer.com]
Itâ(TM)s already been hacked (Score:1)
Communication App (Score:1)