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US Senate approves encrypted chat app Signal for staff use
The United States Senate has been taking cybersecurity more seriously than ever before, thanks to the DNC leaks and various government cyberattacks. Senate Sergeant at Arms Frank J. Larkin and his team have recently finished encrypting all Senators' websites, and it turns out he has also approved Signal for official use by Senate staff members. Sen. Ron Wyden, a privacy and encryption advocate, has revealed that Larkin's office has given one of the most secure messaging apps out there its seal of approval in a letter thanking the Sergeant at Arms for his efforts. While the letter was sent on May 9th, ZDNet says staff members were first allowed to use the app for official business back in March.
BitTorrent's messaging service goes wide, adds ephemeral options
Last we heard of BitTorrent's chat client, Bleep, it was just debuting. Today the news is that the secure messaging client is moving from open alpha to a release aimed at the general Android and iOS owning public. With it comes peer-to-peer messaging with the ability to communicate -- even sending messages to friends who are offline -- no servers required, which theoretically means no threat of hacking. Perhaps the biggest new feature is an ephemeral option called "whispers" for evaporating messages. Unlike Snapchat, though, you can choose on a message by message basis which texts or photos you send will evaporate after 25 seconds. It isn't an all or nothing affair here. And to further distance itself from the ghostly messaging service, you can even send these from a computer. BitTorrent says with whispers you can swap back and forth between them and normal messages seamlessly without breaking the flow of conversation too.
