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71 votes
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Google Messages signs onto cross-platform encrypted group chat standard
53 votes -
No more phone number swaps: Signal messaging app now testing usernames
46 votes -
How Signal walks the line between anarchism and pragmatism
45 votes -
A new bill would force internet companies in the USA to spy on their users for the Drug Enforcement Administration
45 votes -
Criminalization of encryption: The 8 December case
43 votes -
Hackers found a way to open any of three million hotel keycard locks in seconds
42 votes -
Private by design: How we built Firefox Sync
39 votes -
Zoom acquires Keybase and announces goal of developing the most broadly used enterprise end-to-end encryption offering
38 votes -
Encrypted messaging app Signal blocked in China
29 votes -
Hackers steal secret crypto keys for NordVPN. Here’s what we know so far
29 votes -
Zoom to pay $85M for lying about encryption and sending data to Facebook and Google
28 votes -
Signal is finally bringing its secure messaging to the masses
28 votes -
Encrypt. Now.
27 votes -
Terrible, dangerous EARN IT act set to move forward in the senate; attack on both encryption and free speech online
27 votes -
Signal adds quantum-resistant encryption to its E2EE messaging protocol
26 votes -
Signal's server repo hasn't been updated since April 2020
26 votes -
What are the best practices regarding personal files and encryption?
Over the past year I have done a lot to shore up my digital privacy and security. One of the last tasks I have to tackle is locking down the many personal files I have on my computer that have...
Over the past year I have done a lot to shore up my digital privacy and security. One of the last tasks I have to tackle is locking down the many personal files I have on my computer that have potentially compromising information in them (e.g. bank statements). Right now they are simply sitting on my hard drive, unencrypted. Theft of my device or a breach in access through the network would allow a frightening level of access to many of my records.
As such, what are my options for keeping certain files behind an encryption "shield"? Also, what are the potential tradeoffs for doing so? In researching the topic online I've read plenty of horror stories about people losing archives or whole drives due to encryption-related errors/mistakes. How can I protect against this scenario? Losing the files would be almost as bad as having them compromised!
I'm running Linux, but I'm far from tech-savvy, so I would either need a solution to be straightforward or I'd have to learn a lot to make sense of a more complicated solution. I'm willing to learn mainly because it's not an option for me to continue with my current, insecure setup. I do use a cloud-based password manager that allows for uploading of files, and I trust it enough with my passwords that I would trust it with my files, though I would like to avoid that situation if possible.
With all this in mind, what's a good solution for me to protect my personal files?
26 votes -
EARN IT act is a direct attack on end-to-end encryption
25 votes -
NordVPN changes to username and password encryption cause Auth_FAIL in OpenVPN/Gluetun
Recently NordVPN rolled out an update which forced users to use an encrypted username and password combination when connecting through OpenVPN. I haven't seen any posts on this here, and it took...
Recently NordVPN rolled out an update which forced users to use an encrypted username and password combination when connecting through OpenVPN. I haven't seen any posts on this here, and it took me way longer than I want to admit troubleshooting this issue because I knew my original credentials were correct.
If you use a gluetun container for routing any of other containers traffic, you might have recently noticed a 500 Internal Service Error in your Health Status and when you check your logs you will find a AUTH_FAILED message.
Solution below:
- Go to NordVPN website and log in (using your normal credentials)
- Under accounts, services, click NordVPN
- Click "Set up NordVPN Manually" at the bottom of the page
- You will receive an email verification code, using whatever email you have set up for your NordVPN services. Type this code into the popup window.
- Copy your new encrypted credentials for your Open VPN client settings.
This is my first post, please add tags as required.
24 votes -
‘Who benefits?’ Inside the EU’s fight over scanning for child sex content
23 votes -
Quantum resistance and the Signal Protocol
23 votes -
Anker finally comes clean about its Eufy security cameras
23 votes -
What are secure alternatives to slack, and what are your experiences with them?
First, some context. The latest from the US justice department saying that they will be focusing on finding "ANTIFA leaders" is incredibly troubling for anyone involved in leftist groups. I...
First, some context. The latest from the US justice department saying that they will be focusing on finding "ANTIFA leaders" is incredibly troubling for anyone involved in leftist groups. I foresee a lot of good activists, regardless of how far left they actually are, arrested on trumped up charges in order to squash opposition.
Organizing is essential to resist fascism. This is made more difficult by the pandemic, as in person meetings bring a huge, almost unacceptable risk. As such, many orgs have been turning to platforms like Slack instead. Trouble is, Slack logs are not encrypted and I am certain that as a business based in the US Slack will not put up a fight to keep user data safe if the feds come calling.
I'd like to collect a decent list of alternatives. Important factors include encryption, ownership, open source status, ease of use, federation, scalability, hosting, cross platform, and anything else you can think of.
23 votes -
Nextcloud signs public letter, opposing German plan to force decryption of chat
23 votes -
Australia passes controversial encryption-busting law
23 votes -
Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained
21 votes -
Firefox Send's free encrypted file transfers are now available to all
21 votes -
Hackers can read private AI-assistant chats even though they’re encrypted
20 votes -
Hundreds arrested after European law enforcement agencies monitored over 100 million encrypted messages sent through Encrochat, a network used by criminals
20 votes -
The CIA secretly bought a company that sold encryption devices across the world. Then its spies sat back and listened
20 votes -
Australian Criminal Intelligence Agency looking to expand it's intelligence gathering powers by claiming that criminals use encrypted platforms 'almost exclusively'
19 votes -
Anker’s Eufy lied to us about the security of its security cameras. Despite claims of only using local storage, Eufy has been uploading identifiable footage to the cloud.
18 votes -
Flagship Matrix client, Riot, and developer, New Vector, rebrand as Element
18 votes -
WhatsApp chats will soon work with other encrypted messaging apps
17 votes -
Proton Pass, open-source and encrypted password manager
17 votes -
Signal app downloads spike as US protesters seek message encryption
16 votes -
The EARN IT Act: How to ban end-to-end encryption without actually banning it
16 votes -
Testing end-to-end encrypted backups and more on Messenger
15 votes -
Apple's plan to "think different" about encryption opens a backdoor to your private life
15 votes -
Policy vs technology
15 votes -
ISPs lied to Congress to spread confusion about encrypted DNS, Mozilla says
15 votes -
Tech firms “can and must” put backdoors in encryption, AG Barr says
15 votes -
FastMail loses customers, faces calls to move over anti-encryption laws
15 votes -
New Release: Tor Browser 8.0 [based on Firefox Quantum]
15 votes -
Sweden's public sector has ditched Big Tech in the name of privacy as a major telecom provider unveiled a new secure collaboration hub
14 votes -
Why I don't believe in encrypted mail providers anymore
14 votes -
EU Commission to staff: Switch to Signal messaging app
14 votes -
What are the best practices for passphrase security?
This is a sort of continuation of a previous topic I posted. This weekend I will be wiping and reinstalling my computer and encrypting all of my drives in the process. In doing so, I will have to...
This is a sort of continuation of a previous topic I posted. This weekend I will be wiping and reinstalling my computer and encrypting all of my drives in the process. In doing so, I will have to choose secure passphrases. As such, I have some questions about how best to do this:
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I have three drives that will be encrypted. Is it okay to have the same passphrase for all of them, or should I have different ones for each?
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In looking up info on this topic, I came across this article which recommends something called a Diceware wordlist. The premise is that you roll dice which match to a list of 7000+ words. You then string six or more of these words together which become your passphrase. Is this a sound way to generate one?
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Rather than using the Diceware wordlist, couldn't I roll my own password of the same type using six "random" words of my choosing? I feel like that would be easier to remember, but am I weakening security in doing so?
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If the Diceware method is to be trusted, does that mean I do not need to pepper my passphrase with digits, mixed case, and special characters? Or should I add these anyway?
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I'm also considering changing over passwords on a lot of my online accounts based on this method. I like the idea of using a single passphrase as a root, but how do you modify it so that it is different for each account? Would I do something like
[dicewarewords]tildes
,[dicewarewords]spotify
,[dicewarewords]ubuntuforums
, etc.? I feel like it would be too on-the-nose, and it would make it easy to guess my other passwords if one were compromised. On the other hand, I don't like the idea of using a password manager to generate a random string for me. I'd like to still be able to login even without my password manager. -
For people that have used something like this, how do you then deal with password restrictions on sites? I know that no matter how great I set things up I'm still going to have to make exceptions for sites that that either require or forbid numbers, mixed case, or special characters, have character limits, or make me change my password frequently.
14 votes -
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Australia to force tech companies to allow government access to encrypted messages
13 votes