this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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255
Signal no longer cooperating with Ukraine on Russian cyberthreats, official says (therecord.media)
submitted 1 day ago by Sunshine@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 186 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

First off, Signal hasn't said anything, this is an accusation made at a conference in Kyiv. So - who knows, they're behind, they don't have billions to support an army, who knows.

IF they have chosen to not help Ukraine where at all possible, that would be bad.

All of that said, if I was running a modern army using an encrypted chat app, I'd fucking have all that shit in-house, wtf. It's 2025. Ukraine already has a bunch of l337 h4X0rs. I'm sure they could slap something together in days and have it in the field in weeks.

[–] pntha@lemmy.world 70 points 1 day ago (1 children)

not to mention the Signal protocol is open source so they could literally build something in days and ensure the same encryption

[–] ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago

Maintaining and testing such an app has costs and risks. They may think it’s more secure that signal does this. It is also harder to attack all of signal.

They are also significantly resource constrained, everything they have goes towards defence. The effort building the app could be deployed on developing weapon systems they can’t buy.

Your right nations should have their own independent systems for secure communications for military, politicians and civil service.

[–] justOnePersistentKbinPlease@fedia.io 46 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Moreover, its not like Ukraine hasnt been pushing for localized tech stack since at least 2016-2018 ish.

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah they are slowly moving to matrix afaik

[–] techforwhat@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago

Really? Could you provide some sources? I'm curious to learn more.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Simplex is probably ready now. It's self-hostable, and has strong encryption.

[–] mohab@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I wish. SimpleX has a notification/delivery issue on iOS—it's not reliable at all over there.

[–] OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml 1 points 17 hours ago

What about android?

[–] neblem@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Most Ukrainians are probably priced out from Apple products. I don't think iOS is a concern in their use case.

[–] oldfart@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

They have over 30% ios devices, for whatever reasons iphones are very popular in Ukraine.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago

I’m sure they could slap something together in days and have it in the field in weeks.

We make a lot of assumptions about how other people live, and what they have available.

[–] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de 57 points 1 day ago (2 children)

What exactly is the cooperation that Signal was doing beforehand? Signal claims to collect very little data so I'm not sure how exactly they help?

[–] socsa@piefed.social 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Russia was caught running a bunch of side channel and phishing attacks using malicious QR codes. Presumably signal could help track these patterns in terms of time and place, to help isolate where espionage activity was occuring.

[–] LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 44 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Except Signal should not have that data. They claim they do not log that information, so it should be impossible for them to do that.

Unless signal is lying, that's not something they can do.

[–] Sparkega@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Malicious QR codes were used to establish a separate device as a 'linked device' which would allow the attacker to receive and read Signal messages sent to and from the target

[–] BigDiction@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

This tracks. Signal claims to have your phone number and logs on the last time that number accessed the service.

They could not generate new access codes via Twilio when certain patterns are detected and still be within that known data.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 day ago

so I’m not sure how exactly they help?

I would say yes, that you are not sure how exactly they help, if I'm answering your question as written.

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 47 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Did it ever respond to those "requests"? What would Signal have anyway other than phone number to login association.

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[–] harcesz@szmer.info 21 points 1 day ago

This seems to be the only source for this information, while on the other hand I'm seeing this;

Wired: A Signal Update Fends Off a Phishing Technique Used in Russian Espionage

Google warns that hackers tied to Russia are tricking Ukrainian soldiers with fake QR codes for Signal group invites that let spies steal their messages. Signal has pushed out new safeguards.

[–] knighthawk0811@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

why aren't they using the matrix?

[–] oldfart@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What's the difference in this context? Can't their enemies send dodgy links and QR codes on Matrix?

[–] knighthawk0811@lemmy.ml 0 points 20 hours ago

they can send anything, but if they run their own matrix on their own servers then the data stays in house.... important for govt or military things

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org -4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The app?

[–] slartibartfast@feddit.uk 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The encrypted messaging app Signal

Yes.

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