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End-to-end Encryption for WhatsApp

April 6, 2016

A lot of technology providers have promised to protect users' privacy, primarily through the use of encryption. Alphabet (I'll never get used to using that name) is continuing to move forward with its encrypt everywhere effort. Gmail and HTTPS Everywhere are just two examples. Apple has been front and center in the news with the iPhone encryption and now says it will apply the same methods for iCloud backups. Not to be outdone, WhatsApp has just completed the end-to-end encryption rollout to its one billion users. This means that neither WhatsApp (nor the government) will not be able to decrypt any text or voice call using the service.

I'm not a big fan of Facebook, so don't expect to see me using WhatsApp. I prefer to use Signal by Open Whisper Systems and have been using it from the early days. In fact, WhatsApp partnered with Open Whisper Systems to integrate the Signal Protocol since late 2014. No matter what product you use, encryption is here to stay and I'll bet we see a lot more of it in the coming days.

E-mail: Phone: 703.359.0700
Digital Forensics/Information Security/Information Technology
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