confide
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House Democrats adopt encrypted messaging after last year's hack
In light of last year's hacking troubles, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has begun using end-to-end encrypted software for a large chunk of its messaging. For communication both internally and between the DCCC and 20 of its House incumbent campaigns, the committee will use Wickr.
Republicans call for investigation into EPA use of encrypted chats
Earlier in February, Politico reported that US government workers (particularly at the EPA) were using encrypted chat apps like Signal to express dissent against President Trump's policies without the threat of retaliation. Well, House Republicans Darin LaHood and Lamar Smith aren't happy about that secrecy... and they're demanding action. The two have sent a letter to the EPA's independent overseer, the Inspector General, asking for an investigation into the claims. They're concerned that the encrypted conversations "run afoul" of government record-keeping rules and prevent the government from monitoring their on-the-job communications.
Confide is like Snapchat for business, but without pictures
The written word has a nasty habit of sticking around, surfacing in hacked email accounts, accidental forwards and the on untrustworthy lips of your peers. That's why former AOL executive Jon Brod created Confide, an iOS texting app that erases sensitive messages as soon as they're read. It's designed to make private texts as fleeting as a whispered secret, retained only in the memory of the person you confided in; hence the name. To protect itself against the iPhone's screenshot function, the app only reveals a few words at a time, blocking the rest out with an orange sensor bar until the user's finger glides across the screen. Unlike Snapchat, however, the app doesn't seem to support picture sharing. The app is live on the App Store now, you know, in case you needed a fresh way to share office gossip.
