https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/13/feds-say-they-used-encrypted-messages-to-charge-oath-keepers-leader.html

"Federal investigators say they accessed encrypted Signal messages sent before the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol, and used them as evidence to charge the leader of Oath Keepers, an extremist far-right militia group, and other defendants in a seditious plot.

In a legal complaint made public on Thursday, the Department of Justice alleges the defendants conspired to forcefully oppose the transfer of power between then-President Donald Trump to Joe Biden, including by trying to take control of the U.S. Capitol.

The complaint references numerous messages sent on Signal, an end-to-end encrypted messaging app, raising questions about how authorities accessed them and recalling a longstanding point of tension between the law enforcement community and tech industry. Encryption scrambles messages for recipients so that no one else — not even the platform itself — can read them.

WATCH NOW
VIDEO03:32
Oath Keepers leader charged with seditious conspiracy
It’s not clear how investigators gained access to the messages used in the arrest of the far-right group leader, Stewart Rhodes, and other defendants. Representatives for Signal, the Department of Justice, and Federal Bureau of Investigation did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

One possibility is that a recipient with access to the messages handed them over to investigators. The complaint references group messages run on the app, so it’s possible a participant in those chats cooperated.

Encryption has been a point of controversy between investigators and tech companies for years. While law enforcement officers worry that criminals will exploit encrypted technology to hide wrongdoing, tech companies like Apple have taken the privacy side of the argument.

Investigators have in the past tried to get tech companies to open their devices to assist in probing serious crimes, but companies like Apple argue that if they break encryption, it will jeopardize the entire system and potentially help foreign adversaries to exploit weaknesses.

The issue gained particular prominence in 2015, when Apple refused to break the encryption of a suspect’s iPhone in the wake of a mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. After a tense standoff, investigators were eventually able to break the encryption without Apple’s help.

But some law enforcement specialists have said newer security features on iPhone software now makes it harder for them to technically access those devices, even if they are able to obtain a warrant.

The issue came up again under the Trump administration, including when Facebook, now known as Meta Platforms, announced plans to stitch together all of its messaging services and encrypt them from end to end. Investigators said the plans would hamper their ability to clamp down on child sexual abuse material on the platform."

Attached File

So in other words, they had an informant.

Someone gave them to them

Yep. They didn't crack shit. They had someone in the group.

I would bet on that being the case 99/100 times, but it's also possible they just compromised his device beforehand.

TLDR...



...fuck the fed

Well it should be interesting to see if they ignore the 4th or do an end-around to use the info in court.

HEY GUYS WE CAN TOTALLY CRACK SIGNAL SO YOU MIGHT AS WELL JUST STOP USING IT

lol

Keystroke logger or someone gave it up.
Will be interested to see how Signal responds to this.
But good chance they have already gotten a STFU letter from DoJ.

Shhhh they might know "the chairs against the door"

99.99% somebody in a signal chat just gave them access to their device or credentials. Why SigInt when you can HumInt?

Informant.  You get that many people in a secure communication, you can bet it isn't secure.

DRINK LESS OVALTINE

OathKeepers has a stranger in their house. Someone is a Fed CI and handed over the chats.

Meanwhile Epstein and Maxwell entrapped, bribed, and then raped and murdered kids

What a joke of a Law Enforcement group.

Of course.

Maybe it was a honeypot from the start? If the NRA can be the longest lived and highest funded antigun organization behind almost every gun bill in 100 years why can't some patriot group be a glue trap?

This was my take. Lets see if Signal says anything.

If it wasn't from the start, it was as soon as they heard about it.

I don't know anything about signal, but it wouldn't be the first time an app like that has been used as a honey pot as well.

If an informant gave the to the feds there is no 4th amendment violation

Hahaha I came here to post this

In decreasing order of likelihood:
a. The group is over 50% infiltrated by FBI.
b. They have someone in the group.
c. The binaries in the app stores are compromised.
d. They remotely compromised the endpoints.
e. Someone smarter cracked a vulnerability in the software and gave it to them on a silver platter.
z. Someone smarter cracked the actual encryption cipher and gave it to them on a silver platter.

True enough. That's where the "end-around" comes into play.  Also wouldn't discount straight up stupidity on the Oath Keeper's part.

You ever see posts from a drunk chick’s account, where she left her phone unlocked and in the possession of her friends, and they post “Hacked by your bestie!”?

Yeah. It was this. The feds are dumb women who think that they are clever.

SOOOOO many issues to cover here.

No matter how secure you think your electronic communications are, they are never secure. It's stupid to trust them.

You can trust long term relationships to a point, but only to a point. Unless you live with them daily, you never really know if they've been compromised.

Even if you know and live with them, when the pressure is applied, are you SURE they won't squish on you?

Really, the best scenario is to know what needs to be done, do it on your own, and hope that people are smart enough, intrepid enough, and conscientious enough to follow example. No women, no kids.

They are all feds

They have already ignored the 6th, so why get right now?

Maybe even a volunteer. OSINT people have made it a sport to infiltrate various groups and post spicy chats for later use.

Appearances.

So, if the FBI knew before hand what was going down on the 6th, why didn't they arrest the big wigs before the 6th?...Something smells fishy..have to wonder if the FBI compromised the oath keepers and set them up for the fall...

And Anthony Weiner's laptop, containing the vilest crimes against humans, is ignored.

This. If signal is as secure is they say it is, someone would have to give them access to a device.

This.

They are trying to destroy trust

If they had one of the phones, they can extract the messages off of it.

you miss the obvious possibility.  The Feds could purport any message as what they decrypted it as.   You send “pick up paint for signs” and they decrypt “capture Nancy’s rolodex and handle of vodka”.

Anything goes with them anymore.

Koincadink?

2 days ago...

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59937614#:~:text=Moxie%20Marlinspike%2C%20the%20co%2Dfounder,which%20has%20concerned%20some%20users

Moxie Marlinspike, the co-founder and chief executive of encrypted-messaging app Signal, has resigned.
He blogged it was a "good time to replace myself as CEO" after working on Signal for over a decade.

dun DUN DUhhhnnn.!...

blue tooth keyboard intercept

Hint: those idiots didn't use the disappearing message feature.

How in the fuck could an organization like that NOT attract informants?

It's seems like it would be easy to insert some agents into a large group of dopes like that.

What about Pegasus?  Could one of the phones been compromised in a way that they had access to the Signal message content?

Yep, it can happen.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/03/fbi-names-arrests-anon-who-infiltrated-its-secret-conference-call/

honeypotted, compromised, back doors installed?

easiest explanation is the most probable