Government 'hammered' over use of WhatsApp amid security fears
Nick Whigham and AAP news.com.auTHE inner circle of Malcolm Turnbull's government has been grilled on its use of messaging service WhatsApp to communicate and share potentially sensitive information.Despite the intense scrutiny of the practice during a Senate estimates hearing Monday the prime minister's department has not taken any action over reports Malcolm Turnbull and government ministers potentially jeopardised sensitive data by using the messaging service to conduct cabinet business.Labor says the use of the app treats government security with contempt.But Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet deputy secretary Elizabeth Kelly told the Senate estimates hearing this afternoon the issue had not been followed up because the prime minister had made "numerous public statements about the appropriate use of this".
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Facebook and WhatsApp beats Telegram in security stakes
kketi / iStockFacebook's messaging apps have been ranked the best in the world for secure communication by Amnesty International - but there's a catch.Although Facebook came out on top, the charity counts WhatsApp and Messenger, with their 2 billion combined users, together in its calculations - and there are some stark differences.ADVERTISEMENTWhile Whatsapp is "the only app where users are explicitly warned when end-to-end encryption is not applied to a particular chat", Messenger does not use end-to-end encryption as default and does not tell users that normal conversations in Facebook use less secure forms of encryption.WhatsApp deployed end-to-end encryption - a security system that means only the customers can see the text, not the company - earlier this year as default, and regular users may have noticed the proclamation explaining this fact at the start of every new WhatsApp chat.
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Malcolm Turnbull and senior cabinet ministers using WhatsApp could pose security risk
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his most senior cabinet ministers are using a third-party messaging application to conduct confidential discussions, prompting cyber security experts to warn the innovation could actually pose a security risk.The use of WhatsApp is not limited to senior ministers; private chat 'groups' exist for government chiefs of staff, ministerial media advisers, the frontline economic team, and a defence-focused "broadcast group" used by Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne to communicate with MPs and staff.Fairfax Media has spoken with four cyber security experts who have each flagged potential security issues with the widespread use of WhatsApp by the Turnbull government – particularly at a cabinet level – in place of secure, government email servers from platforms approved by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), Australia's cyber intelligence agency.Craig Searle, the founder of security consultancy firm Hivint, pointed out WhatsApp was not an approved platform on the ASD list of Evaluated Products or Certified Cloud Services, whereas Apple's iOS operating system and Blackberry's operating system were.
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