this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2023
88 points (96.8% liked)

UK Politics

3086 readers
31 users here now

General Discussion for politics in the UK.
Please don't post to both [email protected] and [email protected] .
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric politics, and should be either a link to a reputable news source for news, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread. (These things should be publicly discussed)

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

[email protected] appears to have vanished! We can still see cached content from this link, but goodbye I guess! :'(

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

The former head of GCHQ has called for an end to the government handling crises over WhatsApp, saying the platform might suit gossip and informal exchanges but is inappropriate for important decision-making.

Sir David Omand, who ran the UK intelligence service before becoming the permanent secretary of the Home Office and the Cabinet Office, criticised the way government was conducted in the pandemic and said future crises should be handled with “proper process”.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Right? Americans (well some, who, to be fair, also aren't unbiased) went mental about Hilary using personal email for government business. In the UK so many don't see an issue with goverment by WhatsApp!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Not disagreeing, they shouldn't use WhatsApp at all, but email is way less secure. Emails are easier to "hack" and if I remember right they were stored on her personal server so she personally keeps the data, a bit like how Trump was found with government documents in his personal belongings. WhatsApp is encrypted end to end and presumably (I hope) are used on gov work phones.

For me it's more about the lack of controls on accessing and retaining data used in WhatsApp. It's not stored on a central government system.

I don't know if the gov have an official messaging app. But hearing all this in the news really sounds like people in gov are intentionally using WhatsApp as a means to keep conversations secret. Like everything else with this government, it stinks.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Email security is purely on how it's done. If you want it end to end and encrypted at rest, there is the PGP email standard.

Government via WhatsApp is not acceptable. It's a closed source app from a foreign for profit data-mining company. It should be a no brainer that it's not acceptable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

there is the PGP email standard.

I don't think Hilary was using PGP to be fair.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Even if she was, it is a legitimate problem using non-gov email for gov business. Though the crazy thing is those calling to "lock her up" support politicians doing far worse.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah totally agree. WhatsApp shouldn't be used by government.

Email can be secure both sides, one side or neither. You can't rely on it being secure.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If it's PGP email, it's as secure as the keys. If the keys can't be kept secure, no system can be kept secure. You email whose public key you have and it requires their private key to read.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Were talking about somebody using their own personal email for work purposes. There's absolutely no assurances on encryption their using. It's a bigger risk than WhatsApp, although I again should say I agree WhatsApp shouldn't be used either. Both options aren't good but for slightly different reasons, in my opinion anyway.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Oh I'm not arguing it's ok to use personal email for government business. I'm saying email can be secured.