WhatsApp rolls out end-to-end encryption using TextSecure code

The most recent update to WhatsApp's Android app includes a surprising feature: strong end-to-end encryption, enabled by default. It's the strongest security any major texting app has offered, even compared with similar tools from giants like Google, Microsoft, and Apple. WhatsApp partnered with Open Whisper Systems for the launch, using open source code to build in the new features. It's unclear when the features will come to iOS, but just reaching WhatsApp's Android users represents a huge step forward for everyday encryption use.

WHATSAPP IS BY FAR THE LARGEST PLATFORM TO ADOPT THE SYSTEM

"End-to-end" means that, unlike messages encrypted by Gmail or Facebook Chat, WhatsApp won't be able to decrypt the messages itself, even if the company is compelled by law enforcement. The company will set up the key exchange between users, but only the two users will have access to the conversation itself. There are other end-to-end encryption apps on the market — most notably Cryptocat, Silent Text and Telegram — but with over 600 million users across the world, WhatsApp is by far the largest platform to adopt the system.

Open Whisper Systems is best known as the developer of the Signal, Redphone, and TextSecure apps. WhatsApp looked to TextSecure in particular, which keeps messages encrypted even if an attacker cracks the key at some point in the future, a feature known as forward secrecy. TextSecure has also published its source code and withstood numerous public code audits, earning the app a lot of credibility in security circles. Open Whisper has said the team will continue improving its in-house apps, but the company also expects to take on more integrations like this one in the future.

Still, it took a lot of work to get TextSecure's protocols ready for WhatsApps hundreds of millions of users. Open Whisper CTO Moxie Marlinspike says it took six months to get the code ready for such a large deployment, beginning shortly after WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook. "Most of our efforts have been focused on making our code easier to consume," Marlinspike told The Verge. "I've been really impressed with the dedication and commitment WhatsApp has to the project."

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Himalayan Bus Ride Is Not For The Faint Of Heart

Himalayan Bus Ride Is Not For The Faint Of Heart

Investing in a few donkeys to carry people seems like a really good idea right about now.

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Potheads Don't Get NY's New Marijuana Policy In This 'SNL' Sketch

Potheads Don't Get NY's New Marijuana Policy In This 'SNL' Sketch

New Yorkers take to the streets to celebrate when laws against marijuana possession are amended. Then they get confused.

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McDonald’s Refuses To Buy GM Potatoes For Its Fries

McDonald’s Refuses To Buy GM Potatoes For Its Fries

McDonald's may not have a stellar reputation for being picky about its ingredients, but the company has put its foot down on GMOs. McDonald's' largest potato supplier has a hot new GM potato, but the House That Ronald Built has no interest in using them.

McDonald’s isn’t known for being principled about its ingredients; just this year, the company had to issue a major public relations onslaught just to convince people that its Chicken McNuggets are not made from pink slurry. Despite that effort, when you think about fast food chains that are selective about raw ingredients, you think Chipotle, or maybe something like Panera — chains that continuously harp on their bonafides as ethical consumers.

A company called Simplot, an agribusiness conglomerate in the same league as Monsanto, is the main potato supplier for McDonald’s, which in turn is the largest purchaser of potatoes in the country. Simplot has recently come up with a new variety of genetically modified potato, which in the badly-named tradition of the SweeTango apple is called the Innate potato. That said, it’s a pretty interesting spud: most GMO foods are made by splicing genes from other plants in to make them resistant to pesticides, but that isn’t what Simplot’s doing at all.

The Innate potato is engineered to bruise less, keep for longer, resist browning when exposed to oxygen, and contain less of an amino acid called acrylamide (which was speculated back in 2002 to be carcinogenic). None of those qualities are flavor- or texture- or vitamin-related, but still, that quest would seem to be not so awful for GMO protestors. The issue many anti-GMO activists have with genetically modified plants is that they encourage the use of pesticides, which can in turn lead to mutated bugs resistant to bacteria — not the Innate potato.

But that hasn’t stopped McDonald’s from rejecting it. A spokesperson told Capital Press that the company will not use the Innate potato, nor any other GMO potato. Simplot, for its part, says it’ll market the non-browning Innate potato in pre-sliced packaging like apples, which sounds a little weird to us, but who knows? Maybe the market is crying out for pre-sliced genetically modified potatoes.

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Facebook wants to be a tech news powerhouse

Facebook is trying to be your go-to source for tech news, rather than just a way to see baby pics and find out which friends are engaged.

Seven months after introducing FB Newswire, the social networking giant on launched FB Techwire on Tuesday, a brand extension that will focus on industry happenings.

Like FB Newswire, Techwire is powered by Storyful, which will sharee newsworthy content from tech influencers on Facebook — including embeddable photos, videos and status updates that journalists can use for their own content.

Storyful, which News Corp. purchased for $25 million in December, verifies such posts for accuracy.

As with Newswire, the mission of Techwire is to raise Facebook's profile as a news dissemination vehicle. Since Twitter is better known for breaking news than Facebook, the latter is missing out on opportunities to sell advertising against real-time events. Facebook began trying to narrow the gap with Twitter with the introduction of hashtags in June 2013 and Trending Topics in January.

With 1.35 billion monthly active users, Facebook has about four times the user base of Twitter, so it actually disseminates more news. A recent Pew Research study found that more people get their political news from Facebook than any other source, except for local TV news.

With its monopoly on social media-based news, tech is a logical coverage area. In a chat with analysts last week, Twitter disclosed that it receives 554 million tech-related tweets per month. The next most-tweeted topic was food, with 66 million monthly tweets.

 

 

With 1.35 billion monthly active users, Facebook has about four times the user base of Twitter, so it actually disseminates more news.

 

 

 

 

 

IMAGE: TWITTER

With Techwire, Facebook can also cast a wider net for media coverage. Newswire has gotten pickup from the BBC, The Washington Post, the New York Times and other top-tier publications and has offered timely breaking news alerts about last summer's Gaza conflict, the World Cup and the riots in Ferguson, Missouri.

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Viral Sensation Brendan Jordan

The minute i saw him on tv , I know he is going to grab some serious attention. YouTube hits says the story

Viral Sensation Brendan Jordan! | The Queen Lati…: http://youtu.be/liiR6xUKXS0

The Ultimate Fails Compilation

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