Category Archives: News

WhatsApp group for information and cyber security news – Moved to a WhatsApp Channel

Hello all,

Following my former post, from a few months ago, about opening a WhatsApp group for information and cyber security news and content, and following concerns from group members about the privacy issues coming with a WhatsApp group – I tried to find a method to both enhance the privacy of the members of this group, and also remove the limit of 1000 members that is inherited in a WhatsApp group – So eventually I decided to move this group to be a WhatsApp Channel, which doesn’t have any limit to the number of subscribers, and also if doesn’t display the subscribers’ name and phone number to other members or to the channel admin, which is me (unless I already have your phone number in my phone address book, which means I am already in some connection with you).

Read here more about the WhatsApp channel privacy attributes at the WhatsApp article of “About safety and privacy on channels“.
A channel is practically a “one to many” content feed, somewhat similar to an RSS Feed.

I looked into moving the messaging application of “Signal”, but a Signal group is also limited to 1000 members, plus “Signal” does not have a feature similar to a broadcast channel with subscribers, so it wasn’t a suitable option to move to.

As usual – you are invited to invite relevant people to join.

So, starting 27-Jan-25 I stopped publishing new content in the group, and started publishing at the channel (which does show historical/former published content, while a group does not), found in the following link – https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VazZmk5LNSa7uZvULT0n

I hope this change will be beneficial for all of us.

Stay safe and secure!

WhatsApp group for information and cyber security news

31-Jan-2025 – update – the group moved to be a WhatsApp channel and the content update in the group has stopped since 27-Jan-2025, in order to enhance the privacy of the group’s members and to allow the future growth in number the members. More details in a blog post, in this blog site, about this change.
For those in a hurry – the link to the channel is https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VazZmk5LNSa7uZvULT0n

The original post:


Hello everyone,

I opened a WhatsApp group where I regularly post information / cyber security news and sometimes other interesting things in this field.

Most of the links are to content in English, but sometimes also in to content in Hebrew.

You are hereby invited to join the group, and invite more people, using the link below.

The group’s description:

Hello everyone, My name is Eitan Caspi.

In this group I will share information security news and updates from around the world, including interesting content that is not necessarily news (such as technical articles, thoughts about the field, and so on), mainly in English and a little in Hebrew.

Group members are invited to invite relevant people to join. Let’s have fun!

Link to join the group – (The link was removed due to the group being moved to be a channel. See the start of this post for more details)

My LinkedIn Profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitancaspi/

My Consulting firm – https://vsec.co.il/

My Information Security Blog – https://fudie.net/

My initiative to end default passwords, “Default is a FAULT!” – https://defaultisafault.com/

Law enforcement bodies ask social media to open end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for them

Interesting. Does these almost same-time publications are a coincidence? I tend to doubt it.
 
Both law enforcement bodies in Europe and Australia publicly turn to the private market, with focus on Social Media, asking it to ease its end-to-end encryption (E2EE), so law enforcement can read relevant data, for law enforcement reasons.
 
In my view this can mostly one of two:
1. Law enforcement has a real problem here
2. Law enforcement has the ability to overcome end-to-end encryption (E2EE) so they use these publications to pretend to be helpless against it, hence building the criminals/enemies confident that these platforms are safe for them, so they will act freely in them and so the law enforcement bodies will be able to spy on them
 
If it is the first reason – then I think it looks like we are escalating towards a clash.
 
News article
“Police Chiefs Call for Solutions to Access Encrypted Data in Serious Crime Cases”
 
The Europol post about it
 
The declaration (PDF file)
 
News article
“The director general of Australia’s lead intelligence agency and the commissioner of its Federal Police yesterday both called for social networks to offer more assistance to help their investigators work on cases involving terrorism, child exploitation, and racist nationalism.”