Belgian security forces used WhatsApp because of the attacks

The Belgian publication RTL published interesting information about police actions after a series of terrorist attacks in Brussels last week. A police spokesman shared information that special explosives had been violated as a result of the explosions, which should have been used to coordinate the actions of the special services in such a situation. Instead, the police used the most appropriate means for operational communication - the WhatsApp messenger.



It is known that using instant messengers in case of emergency, for example, for communicating in situations of providing quick help, is highly discouraged even for ordinary users. This is directly indicated, including in Microsoft Skype software. Recently, we wrote that WhatsApp uses secure end-to-end encryption (for Android), which provides a good level of protection for data sent by users. However, even this property is clearly not enough for use in such situations.
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The following are the strengths and weaknesses of WhatsApp security compared to Skype and Telegram ( EFF data ).


Fig. WhatsApp security mechanisms. There is no check mark for the second option due to the lack of end-to-end encryption support for iOS.


Fig. Skype example that decrypts data on the server side


Fig. Security Telegram messenger. In secret chat mode, it provides the same high level of security as Signal, which we wrote about in a previous post.