The relatability of this story is what gives it legs.<p>Everyone likes to imagine this kind of stuff is done by operators acting in American interests with a steady hand on the wheel. But it turns out decisions about life and death are being made using shallow analysis by a list of unqualified political insiders with the level of care given to organizing a fantasy football league.<p>I can't think of a better parable about technology. We have removed massive barriers and instilled ease of use. We have also created complacency and instilled recklessness. Add in the political elements and this is a seminal 21st century moment.
The binaries for signal that come down from the apple/google stores are different than when built from the source code yourself. As much as a 5MB difference. So who knows if it’s even secure in the first place.
More discussion: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43462783">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43462783</a>
Why wouldn't the United States employ DARPA or the NSA to create a non-commercial mobile communications platform for high ranking government employees? Is signal in bed with the government? I must not be technical enough to understand the reasoning.
He’s making most of his 15 minutes. He’s now walking back the “war plans” characterization of the chat.<p>Yes these intel guys and gals certainly should be spanked to improve their operatsec. That’s inexcusable, but this guy is squeezing the most he can out of the story.<p>Signal is an approved app. The prior admin also used it for non classified discussions.<p>Whoever invited that putz accidentally into the chat needs to be fired.