(Big League Politics) – Recent court documents have indicated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) possesses a tool allowing them to access encrypted messages on the Signal app.
Signal has rapidly gained in popularity as Silicon Valley monopolists have grown more openly hostile to free speech, but the platform may be vulnerable to backdoors that undermine the privacy protections provided through the encrypted messaging service.
According to documents filed by the Department of Justice and first obtained by Forbes, Signal’s encrypted messages can be intercepted from iPhone devices when those Apple devices are in a mode called “partial AFU,” which means “after first unlock.”
When phones are in partial AFU mode, Signal messages can be seized by federal authorities and other potentially hostile interests. GrayKey and Cellebrite are the tools typically used by the FBI to gain this sensitive information, an expert has explained.
“It uses some very advanced approach using hardware vulnerabilities,” said Vladimir Katalov, who founded the Russian forensics company ElcomSoft, believing that GrayKey was used by federal authorities to crack Signal.
This vulnerability within the Signal app may not be a design flaw, but rather a deliberate backdoor to allow authorities to access private messages. The app was initially funded with backing from the deep state, after all.
Big League Politics has reported about the rise of Telegram, a pro-privacy app that is Signal’s most direct competitor:
The New York Times is prodding Telegram to censor right-wing voices and hamper the platform’s amazing growth as mainstream social media platforms enact Draconian censorship.
The notorious fake news rag published an article on Tuesday imploring Telegram to do more to stop so-called “far-right conspiracy theorists, racists and violent insurrectionists” from using the app to communicate.
“There’s a real push and pull between the people that are using Telegram — and messengers like it — for good, and the people who are using them to undermine democracy,” said Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation analyst at the globalist Wilson Center.
“We see the same openness and sense of connection that is used by democratic activists opportunistically exploited by extremists,” she added…
“Telegram has never yielded to pressure from officials who wanted us to perform political censorship,” Durov wrote several years ago.
Durov, a Russian-born libertarian, has run into trouble with the Kremlin over Telegram, but the Russian government has come around on the platform and now regularly use it. Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, even urged former President Donald Trump to get on the platform after he was banned by Big Tech.
“Seems like you don’t enjoy freedom of speech in your own country any more!” Mr. Polyanskiy wrote.
Although Trump is not currently on the platform, his son, Donald Trump Jr., has joined Telegram and already commands a massive following on the pro-free speech app.
Telegram may be a better option than Signal for individuals hoping to safeguard their rights, considering Signal’s vulnerabilities and deep state ties.
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