August 2019 - nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

Calls for backdoor access to WhatsApp as Five Eyes nations meet | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo Aug. 1, 2019

Aug. 1, 2019

<https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/30/five-eyes-backdoor-access-w…> British, American and other intelligence agencies from English-speaking countries have concluded a two-day meeting in London amid calls for spies and police officers to be given special, backdoor access to WhatsApp and other encrypted communications. The meeting of the “Five Eyes” nations – the UK, US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – was hosted by new home secretary, Priti Patel, in an effort to coordinate efforts to combat terrorism and child abuse. Dealing with the challenge faced by increasingly effective encryption was one of the main topics at the summit, officials said, at a time when technology companies want to make their services more secure after a range of security breaches. The meetings, however, were held in private with no agenda being made public, making it difficult to conclude exactly what had been discussed by the ministers, officials and intelligence agencies from the countries involved. However, British ministers have privately voiced particular concerns about WhatsApp, the widely used Facebook-owned messenger service, which was used by, among others, the three plotters in the London Bridge terror attack. “We need to ensure that our law enforcement and security and intelligence agencies are able to gain lawful and exceptional access to the information they need,” the Home Office said in a statement. GCHQ, the UK agency which monitors and breaks into communications, has suggested that Silicon Valley companies could develop technology that would silently add a police officer or intelligence agent to conversations or group chats. The controversial so-called “ghost protocol” has been fiercely opposed by companies, civil society organisations and some security experts – but intelligence and law enforcement agencies continue to lobby for it. Police said they had not been able to see or crack open hundreds of WhatsApp messages sent by at least one of those involved in the London Bridge attacks because an acquaintance of theirs had refused to hand over his phone. WhatsApp has also been improving its security after it emerged earlier this year that a flaw had been exploited by an Israeli spyware company, which allowed special software used by intelligence agencies to covertly take control of a person’s phone. Ministers attending the event included Patel and the attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, who is the government’s most senior law officer. Also present was his US counterpart, William Barr. Barr attracted controversy last week when he said the proliferation of what he described as “warrant-proof encryption” was making it easier for criminals to evade detection. Patel described the summit as “an exciting moment for the UK” and said the UK was “a global leader on national security and child protection and we are committed to working with our close partners on shared challenges”. The Five Eyes summit is an annual event, first held in 2013. The anglophone security network has become increasingly important at a time when the UK is planning to leave the European Union.

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The Dying Art of Instruction in the Digital Classroom | by Tim Parks | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books
by J.C. DE MARTIN Aug. 1, 2019

Aug. 1, 2019

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/07/31/the-dying-art-of-instruction-in-th… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Army fights fake news with propagandists and hackers in one unit | Technology | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo Aug. 1, 2019

Aug. 1, 2019

<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/31/army-fights-fake-news-wi…> Computer hackers and propaganda specialists working in the British army are to be placed in a single division, as part of a reorganisation designed to reflect a belief that the boundary between peace and war has become increasingly blurred. The cyber and intelligence experts will be consolidated into a reborn 6th Division – one of three in the army with a strength of 14,500 – which will also contain ground troops who can be used in secret, special forces-type operations. British special forces to get new mission to counter state actors Read more Lt Gen Ivan Jones, the commander of the British field army, said the plan reflected the fact that “the character of warfare continues to change” and “the boundaries between conventional and unconventional warfare” had become blurred. One of the early tasks for the rebranded unit is to better tackle disinformation and fake news emerging from Russia and elsewhere. For example, at the end of a recent exercise in Croatia, stories circulated that British soldiers had tried to abduct a native child only to be fought off by locals. “What happened was that a handful of incidents that happened after the exercise, regrettable stories of soldiers accused of vandalism or urinating in public, were exaggerated online locally and began to appear in local media. We need people on the ground from the new 6th Div who can quickly counter that,” a military source said. However, deliberate disinformation has been used in Mosul and northern Iraq “to great effect” to undermine Islamic State, army sources indicated, although they declined to provide further details for security reasons. British combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan finished 10 and five years ago, and while the military are now engaged in some covert missions such as in Yemen, conventional war fighting is currently rare. Troops are more likely to be engaged in peacekeeping and security operations, such as leading a Nato battlegroup on the Russian border in Estonia, or engaged in exercises in parts of the world where a visible UK presence is deemed politically desirable. [...]

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