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Comment by Mithaldu | Hacker News Reader

One of the very first points Greenwald makes is that encryption software is ridiculously hard to install and use for even versed users, nevermind the general populace. I didn't check the rest of the conference materials, but i've no doubt that nobody picked up on that; even though it represents a very hard but very worthwhile problem to pursue and solve.

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A piece of encryption software for mobile instant messaging that is relatively easy to install and use is Threema https://threema.ch/en/. It appears to be quite popular among 30C3 attendees this year. I was also able to convince about 20 of my non-geek friends to use it instead of WhatsApp.

It doesn't support group chat on Android yet (on iOS it does), but it's under development.

The security section on the FAQ page might be interesting to HN readers: https://threema.ch/en/faq.html

(I'm not affiliated with Threema)

I'm noticing this app is not open-source in anyway.

That's game-over with the types of threats HN is concerned about these days.

Of course to some degree, the smartphone is so compromised in so many different ways that it's basically not even worth trying. Your SIM card runs code against you, the OS reports back in dozens of ways to 2-3 different entities, app stores can't be trusted, advertisers...

The app itself is not, but the crypto part is. Also see https://threema.ch/validation/

> I didn't check the rest of the conference materials, but i've no doubt that nobody picked up on that;

There were a couple of talks that appear related to that topic:

  * "Beyond the Tech: Building Internet Freedom Tools for Real People" <http://events.ccc.de/congress/2013/Fahrplan/events/5550.html>

  * "The Internet (Doesn't) Need Another Security Guide" <http://events.ccc.de/congress/2013/Fahrplan/events/5538.html>

Perhaps... but even when sent a video with clear instructions, he balked at actually watching it, never mind following it. Even though he was a journalist who admittedly likes to publish things others find inconvenient.

I think it says more about journalists' egos than anything else. Have you ever been happy with an article on a topic you have intimate first hand knowledge of?

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