You might have heard about Signal, the encrypted chat app the U.S. government infamously used to discuss war plans last year. (Yikes.) But while the app is no alternative to a dedicated SCIF, it is a good option for the rest of us to communicate more securely. Signal uses end-to-end encryption (E2EE), which, very simply, means that messages are “scrambled” in transit, and can only be “unscrambled” by the sender and the recipient or recipients. If you’re in a Signal chat, you’ll be able to read incoming messages just like you would any other chat app—if you’re an attacker, and intercept that message, all you’ll find is a jumble of code.
E2EE makes it difficult for anyone without your unlocked device (or your unlocked Signal app) to read your Signal message—difficult, not impossible. That’s part of the reason the chat app is no option for government officials (though no third-party
...Keep reading this article on Life Hacker.
