3 ms·

Maybe they should have used BBM/iMessage/WhatsApp - all the civilian gear governments are screaming they need backdoors into because they’re too tough to crack.

• bsimpson 8y ago
  Just because the Albuquerque Police Department can't crack <insert secure messenger here> doesn't mean the NSA can't. Interesting point about blending in, but I suspect they thought they could build a system more secure than the commercial options and/or didn't trust their security in the hands of a third party.
  • jarym 8y ago
    Security is hard. I’d take a commercial system that has years of history and that many major governments have rallied against (BES) over a home-grown system that obviously got tested in the field... and cost lives!
• repolfx 8y ago
  All those are blocked in China, no?
• DownGoat 8y ago
  An intelligence operation has different requirements. While those listed applications might hide the contents of the messages, you can still see that messages were sent/received, and that might be enough to warrant you for summary execution in China. During WW2/WW1 the British knew when air raids were coming from Germany by recognizing radio traffic patterns, and activity. The radio traffic was encrypted, and they could not understand whatever was sent, but the traffic itself created patterns that alerted them.