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Signal pumps all traffic across AWS infrastructure, where the simplest of all traffic analysis can deanonymize its users. Signal relies on phone numbers (for re
by rendx 6y ago
Signal pumps all traffic across AWS infrastructure, where the simplest of all traffic analysis can deanonymize its users. Signal relies on phone numbers (for reasons), which again is not exactly the best "metadata" to carry around. If you look at the NSA material in the Snowden cache, it becomes clear that the whole "US kills based on metadata" is fed by piggybacking exactly on such systems, like deanonymization of simple VPNs and other "streams of data with simple proxies in between".
PGP can be used to encrypt headers such as Subject. Mail addresses can be temporary and pseudonymous much more easily than phone numbers. One could imagine building something like "Signal" on top of PGP and "email" that has all the "metadata hiding" properties of Signal, and more, e.g. by introducing delays and random relaying order on SMTP level.
Deltachat is an example of an open project in that space: https://delta.chat/ https://delta.chat/
- tptacek 6y agoAh, the "sufficiently sophisticated PGP usage", where everyone uses ephemeral email accounts for each message, subjects are encrypted, nobody can reply plaintext, and nothing runs over an infrastructure that can be traffic-analyzed. That "Deltachat" doesn't accomplish this is besides the point, of course.
- jrochkind1 6y agoOne can imagine all sorts of thing. Are you saying that you routinely send PGP email with Subject headers encrypted, using temporary mail addresses and pseudonyms? This is your routine email use, with a bunch of correspondents who do the same? Or, along with "random relay ordering on SMTP level", it's just something you're imagining? If you're saying the PGP use you imagine would be more secure than the Signal use that actually exists... I mean, I guess that's cool.
- dane-pgp 6y ago> If you're saying the PGP use you imagine would be more secure than the Signal use that actually exists... To present an iron-man argument instead of a straw-man, imagine they were comparing Delta Chat to Signal, and pointing out that Delta Chat does encrypt subject headers[0], and that Signal users typically don't use temporary phone numbers (which are harder to obtain than temporary email addresses). If you want, you could try comparing Signal's proprietary network versus the global SMTP network in terms of how secure they are against traffic timing analysis. [0] https://delta.chat/en/help#how-does-delta-chat-protect-my-metadata https://delta.chat/en/help#how-does-delta-chat-protect-my-me...