Following the initiative of Vasili Koufa, a reader of SecNews, we received an official response from Viber regarding the rumors that now conversations on the messaging platform will be monitored by the Greek Authorities (ΥΠ - Ελ.ΑΣ).
The news regarding the monitoring of leading communication applications, including Viber and WhatsApp, by the Hellenic Security Service and the Hellenic Police
For those of you who are not aware of this specific news, we would like to inform you that at the end of October, a group of EYP executives traveled to England where they apparently attended a demonstration of an extremely expensive surveillance system, while there is a corresponding interest from Hellenic Police services, such as the Intelligence Management Directorate and the Counter-Terrorism Service.
The procurement of these systems, which has been deemed an absolute priority by security authorities and secret services, is expected to change the data in investigations for the dismantling of criminal organizations that use 70-80% of these types of online applications for their communication.
The storm of reactions from users through a torrent of comments on social media seems to have alarmed the online communication giant, which rushed to respond to the rumors and restore the name of the messaging app.
Today, Viber gave an official response regarding how it processes and manages its user data.
In the screenshot you see the company's response to a SecNews reader.
"With version 6.0, Viber features end-to-end encryption , offering secure communication through audio messages, video chats, text messages, videos, and images.
This means that your personal data is encrypted from the moment it is sent from your device until it reaches the recipient's device. Encryption is essentially converting your message into a code, the key to which only you and the recipients of your message will have. No one else, not even Viber, has the secret key.
What is end -to-end encryption?
Messaging apps that use End-to-end Encryption are considered the most can hardly breach a hacker. What does this mean? The data is stored on the endpoints (i.e. by users and not by servers) and companies do not retain the data nor can they decrypt it with a master key.
What are the EYP-EL.AS trying to achieve?
When Viber promises end-to-end encryption, how the EYP and the EL.AS.succeed in monitoring users? Agreements behind closed doors or inaccuracies and exaggerations to scare citizens? What will be the trust of users - if the rumors are true - towards the services that protect users from cybercrime when, in the end, they adopt it themselves? Justified or not, this loss has certainly made us think, which is why we should always take care to protect our "online selves".
- We always use strong passwords
- We choose not to expose important personal information on social media
- We avoid online communication with users we do not know as they may have the intention of breaching our accounts
- Frequent security updates of our devices
If you need more information about the platform's privacy policy and end-to-end encryption, you can go to the following links:
https://support.viber.com/customer/portal/articles/2017401-viber-security-faq
https://www.viber.com/app/uploads/Viber-Encryption-Overview.pdf
*SecNews has also contacted WhatsApp's DPO and is awaiting an official response.
*SecNews warmly thanks Vasili Koufa for his interest and cooperation.
