Look, I get where you’re coming from, but if you already have something that’s the gold standard for secure encrypted messaging, you don’t try to reinvent that. First, it’s money you don’t have to spend, and second, in the process of getting it right you get to discover all the ways they got it wrong. Why introduce that unknown element?
To be clear, the CAF aren’t texting each other fire coordinates. They have secure radios and DND email that’s only accessible on secured devices. That’s where all the secret secret stuff goes. But there’s a lot of stuff that happens day to day that still needs to be secure, but accessible. In Latvia, especially, our soldiers are always being tracked by Russian operatives. You’re literally not allowed to go anywhere alone because you could get black bagged. So if you need to text your unit about drinks plans, that shit needs to be secure. Soldiers need safe ways of communicating without a $20,000 radio set.
Signal works and it works well. One of the biggest mistakes in military procurement is trying to make something new when the tool you need already exists. Especially when that existing tool comes at a low low cost of free.
Reminder that Signal is used by the Canadian Armed Forces because it’s the only messaging app that meets their security requirements.
Damn, if only there were some way to… I don’t know… Make their fucking own app! Is this really not something people have considered?
No, because that’s a really bad idea.
Look, I get where you’re coming from, but if you already have something that’s the gold standard for secure encrypted messaging, you don’t try to reinvent that. First, it’s money you don’t have to spend, and second, in the process of getting it right you get to discover all the ways they got it wrong. Why introduce that unknown element?
To be clear, the CAF aren’t texting each other fire coordinates. They have secure radios and DND email that’s only accessible on secured devices. That’s where all the secret secret stuff goes. But there’s a lot of stuff that happens day to day that still needs to be secure, but accessible. In Latvia, especially, our soldiers are always being tracked by Russian operatives. You’re literally not allowed to go anywhere alone because you could get black bagged. So if you need to text your unit about drinks plans, that shit needs to be secure. Soldiers need safe ways of communicating without a $20,000 radio set.
Signal works and it works well. One of the biggest mistakes in military procurement is trying to make something new when the tool you need already exists. Especially when that existing tool comes at a low low cost of free.