I hope they built in a backdoor, to prove all us techies wrong. *Sits back with the popcorn*
France building encrypted messaging app for politicians
France's government has built an encrypted messaging app for government use. The move was announced last Friday on radio station France Inter by digital secretary of state Mounir Mahjoubi (here in French). Mahjoubi said the aim is to create an end-to-end encrypted app to be “internal to the state and intended to replace” non- …
COMMENTS
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Tuesday 17th April 2018 08:48 GMT rmason
Re: An app with a limited number of users will get less scrutiny from most security experts.
@Crisp
Not when those "users" are exclusively either high value targets, or worse, those the high value targets let work their smartphones for them.
I'm sure it'll get plenty of "checking and testing" from many interested parties.
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Tuesday 17th April 2018 17:12 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: An app with a limited number of users will get less scrutiny from most security experts.
An app with a limited number of users will likely mean said users use alternative messaging apps to chat with the rest of their contacts...
Or setup some sort of alternative systems to allow them to conveniently access all of their contacts, bypassing the additional security...
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Tuesday 17th April 2018 17:40 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: "an app whose encryption isn't controlled by the US or Russia."
True. The French may send each other messages with encryption. The US government can (and will and have repeatedly in the past) force Microsoft/Google/Apple to make a platform intrusion (like say, a screenshot) for them without telling non-US citizens who have zero rights in the US.
They can do so silently, because these companies are not allowed to talk about this kind of mandatory intrusion.
We need to quit American technology if it keeps treating us like we have no rights. Building a chat-app on top of their software is not going to give any privacy.
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Tuesday 17th April 2018 12:17 GMT Scroticus Canis
I got a 'U'. Beat that.
I got told by the French teacher to "never never darken his classroom door step again" after forgetting to go to an exam! Do I win?
Yep, I also ended up living in Paris (long ago) and learnt French in the Tabacs and Cafes. Crap pidgin French but good enough to insult the locals :)
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Wednesday 18th April 2018 10:30 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I got a 'U'. Beat that.
Pah, I got a "U" in my computer studies!
Although what the hell installing an OS, locating drivers, getting a printer to print, cleaning the heads on a floppy disk, setting IRQ's and DMA's etc etc had to do with a fucking relational database I have NO idea.
I've fixed thousands of desktop and laptops, but never ever had to fuck around with a database.
"Computer" studies my big fat white Yorkshire arse...
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Tuesday 17th April 2018 13:47 GMT Pascal Monett
Re: isn't "Macron" French for "absolute war mad fuck nugget"?
Of course, you're absolutely right.
He has a long history of insulting other countries, threatening with nuclear armageddon and pathetically calling people names like "Rocket Man".
Oh no, wait, that's Trump.
You were saying ?
As for fuck nugget, I cannot possibly comment on your tastes. My wife would agree he does look rather fetching, though.
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Tuesday 17th April 2018 15:47 GMT Teiwaz
But isn't "Macron" French for "absolute war mad fuck nugget"?
Sure it isn't Macaroon?
Damn, now I'm hungry.
''This is my mother, her name is Michele, she is under the table.'
That was one french translation I did.........Well, I thought it might be right....
...on the table wouldn't have been any better.
was there a table in the first place....?
Nyah!! It was twenty plus years ago.
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Tuesday 17th April 2018 19:37 GMT The Nazz
re Macron
Macron ( le Blair francais, or le Blair lite francais if you prefer) is french for the standard, hypocritical lying twat of a politician.
According to this article from the BBC (though how it got published given that his PC Diversity rating is low is beyond me) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-43794856 it quotes him :
"He urged the EU to renew its commitment to democracy, in a passionate speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg."
So, you smarmy twat (did i mention Blair lite), you won't be insisting on forcing Hungary et al to accept millions of immigrants they clearly do not want, and democratically voted for. By a majority result far more impressive than that succesfully won in the Brexit referendum.
Listening in to these people is not a job i could keep down (nor my lunch) for too long.
Excuse my French, grade 9 here (not quite a U but probably a grade K by modern standards)
"Oooh la la, do you reckon that stroppy Brit, Theresa May, is a bit of a goer?"
"Err, after you if you must"
"well, would you?"
"non"
Yes please, unbreakable encryption if you will.
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Tuesday 17th April 2018 09:32 GMT Mystic Megabyte
Vendage, Fleurie, [year redacted, but it was a good one]
When I was working at a French vineyard a young Irishman arrived. The farmer asked him his name. Conner, he replied. The farmer said, "I can't call you that, I'll call Jacques instead!"
I know it's off topic but thought you might need a laugh on a Tuesday morning.
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Tuesday 17th April 2018 15:01 GMT Anonymous Coward
Mounir Mahjoubi - strangest French name I've ever seen
How many people does the French government have in charge that are from 99% muslim countries?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morocco#Religion
Maybe there's a reason why I keep seeing videos about thousands of "refugees" assaulting lorries trying to drive down the freeway. I thought France was ran by French people, but every time I see some news report from Europe these days it's a Muslim in their government doing something. Why aren't the high official positions in government restricted to not French citizens?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadiq_Khan for example.
How in the world did you folks have a Union for less than a score and get this infiltrated?
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Tuesday 17th April 2018 15:35 GMT Yet Another Anonymous coward
every time I see some news report from Europe these days it's a Muslim in their government doing something.
Because it's the only way to keep the Huguenots from seizing power.
Why aren't the high official positions in government restricted to not French citizens?
I think restricting French government positions to not French citizens might be unfair. There are many French citizens who would be good at government positions. The trick is to avoid the ones called "General"
ps Although Boris claimed that London is the biggest French city Sadiq Khan isn't actually a French government official (unless Brexit negotiations have taken a rather unlikely turn)
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Tuesday 17th April 2018 18:09 GMT Dave 15
serets
Politicians are there to represent us, to be democratically accountable to us. Yet they want to spy on us while hiding from us?
Only politicians can fail to see how stupid and dangerous that all looks.
Macron was recently preventing the french from a say on the eu because they would say out, then saying that there needs to be more democracy, then hiding his comms
The only thing sensible here is setting up security that you control. you wrote and not to depend in any way on other / even for hardware
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Tuesday 17th April 2018 21:10 GMT John Savard
Why?
They have this encrypted parliamentary network and E-mail, so why do they need a messaging app?
I would think it's obvious. Why do the rest of us use messaging apps if we can use VPNs and E-mail? So they want to have encryption for another form of communication that the politicians want to use because it's convenient.
In the United States, the NSA had made a secure smartphone, but it was so awkward, hard to use, and out of date that they couldn't get Obama to use it. Why can't France have similar problems, even if they have their own agency with experts in cryptology?