Encrypted messaging service eavesdropped on by police, users arrested

After eavesdropping on yet another encrypted messaging service for five months, law enforcement agencies decided to shut down the service that was popular among members of organized crime groups. The service called Exclu claims to use the "most secure encryption protocols", as well as end-to-end...

Encrypted Messaging App Exclu Used by Criminal Groups Cracked by Joint Law Enforcement

A joint law enforcement operation conducted by Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland has cracked yet another encrypted messaging application named Exclu used by organized crime groups. Eurojust, in a press statement, said the February 3 exercise resulted in the arrests of 45 individuals across...

Encrypted Messaging App Exclu Used by Criminal Groups Cracked by Joint Law Enforcement

A joint law enforcement operation conducted by Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland has cracked yet another encrypted messaging application named Exclu used by organized crime groups. Eurojust, in a press statement, said the February 3 exercise resulted in the arrests of 45 individuals across...

Security Analysis of Threema

A group of Swiss researchers have published an impressive security analysis of Threema. We provide an extensive cryptographic analysis of Threema, a Swiss-based encrypted messaging application with more than 10 million users and 7000 corporate customers. We present seven different attacks against...

WhatsApp Launches a Proxy Tool to Fight Internet Censorship

Amid internet shutdowns in Iran, the encrypted messaging app is introducing proxy connections that can help people get online...

Telegram Has a Serious Doxing Problem

The encrypted messaging app is a haven for politically motivated vitriol, but users are increasingly bringing threats to targets’ doorsteps...

Signal's Cryptocurrency Feature Has Gone Worldwide

A beta “payments” feature now lets users of the popular encrypted messaging app send MobileCoin around the globe...

Paragon: Yet Another Cyberweapons Arms Manufacturer

Forbes has the story: Paragons product will also likely get spyware critics and surveillance experts alike rubbernecking: It claims to give police the power to remotely break into encrypted instant messaging communications, whether thats WhatsApp, Signal, Facebook Messenger or Gmail, the industry...

Patch Tor Browser Bug to Prevent Tracking of Your Online Activities

Open-source Tor browser has been updated to version 10.0.18 with fixes for multiple issues, including a privacy-defeating bug that could be used to uniquely fingerprint users across different browsers based on the apps installed on a computer. In addition to updating Tor to 0.4.5.9, the browser's...

Signal Adds a Payments Feature—With Cryptocurrency

The encrypted messaging app is integrating support for MobileCoin in a bid to keep up with the features offered by its more mainstream rivals...

Military, Nuclear Entities Under Target By Novel Android Malware

Researchers have uncovered two novel Android surveillanceware families being used by an advanced persistent threat APT group to target military, nuclear and election entities in Pakistan and Kashmir. The two malware families, which researchers call “Hornbill” and “SunBird,” have sophisticated...

What Is the Signal Encryption Protocol?

As the Signal protocol becomes the industry standard, it's worth understanding what sets it apart from other forms of end-to-end encrypted messaging...

WhatsApp Is Adding Disappearing Messages—With Some Limits

The popular encrypted messaging app now lets you automatically make chats vanish after a week, but look out for a few caveats...

New Web-Based Credit Card Stealer Uses Telegram Messenger to Exfiltrate Data

Cybercriminal groups are constantly evolving to find new ways to pilfer financial information, and the latest trick in their arsenal is to leverage the messaging app Telegram to their benefit. In what's a new tactic adopted by Magecart groups, the encrypted messaging service is being used to send...

E.U. Authorities Crack Encryption of Massive Criminal and Murder Network

European law-enforcement officials have shut down an encrypted Android-based communications platform used exclusively by criminals to plot murders, traffic illegal drugs, commit money laundering and plan other organized crimes. An international law-enforcement team from the France and the...

Telegram Suffers 'Powerful DDoS Attack' From China During Hong Kong Protests

Telegram, one of the most popular encrypted messaging app, briefly went offline yesterday for hundreds of thousands of users worldwide after a powerful distributed denial-of-service DDoS attack hit its servers. Telegram founder Pavel Durov later revealed that the attack was mainly coming from the...

Telegram Suffers 'Powerful DDoS Attack' From China During Hong Kong Protests

Telegram, one of the most popular encrypted messaging app, briefly went offline yesterday for hundreds of thousands of users worldwide after a powerful distributed denial-of-service DDoS attack hit its servers. Telegram founder Pavel Durov later revealed that the attack was mainly coming from the...

Hacker Breaks Into French Government's New Secure Messaging App

A white-hat hacker found a way to get into the French government's newly launched, secure encrypted messaging app that otherwise can only be accessed by officials and politicians with email accounts associated with the government identities. Dubbed "Tchap ," the end-to-end encrypted, open source...

Encrypted Messaging Project "Matrix" Suffers Extensive Cyber Attack

Matrix—the organization behind an open source project that offers a protocol for secure and decentralized real-time communication—has suffered a massive cyber attack after unknown attackers gained access to the servers hosting its official website and data. Hackers defaced Matrix's website, and...

Latin American ‘Biñeros’ Bond Over Fraudulent Purchase Scheme

A type of card-not-present fraud is spreading throughout the Latin American underground, uniting groups of malefactors in a communal effort to perpetrate it as widely and as often as possible. Cybercriminals in the region are making use of problems in the validation process for bank identificatio...