German police read Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp messages without breaking encryption
Cybernews
German police read WhatsApp messages without cracking encryption
45 days of Signal history may be exposed by German police messaging surveillance using linked devices, Netzpolitik says. Read what the documents reveal
Netzpoltik details that police are able to gain access in this way either through physical access to someone’s phone or by intercepting verification codes via a state-sanctioned phishing attack or intercepting SMS messages via telephone surveillance
Signal doesn’t sync previous history so only new messages since linking are affected. I guess sending notifications to previous devices about link status would be helpful.
Last I checked linked devices could only be computers, and linking didn’t involve phone numbers at all, so sim cloning and sms interception shouldn’t work, only qr linking, but I’m not sure that still is the case
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Linked devices can also be iPads with the Signal iOS app.