FOSSPicks
FOSSPicks
Nate explores the top FOSS including a starship bridge simulator, an offline translator, a stateless password manager, and a de-googled version of Chromium.
Backdoors for All
As I was leafing through the latest "Crypto-Gram" newsletter, I found author Bruce Schneier's take on the recent showdown between Apple and the UK government. In brief, the UK tried using its draconian laws to have Apple secretly place a backdoor in its iCloud ADP (Advanced Data Protection). Rather than compromise its end-to-end encryption, Apple disabled the feature altogether in the country.
Security experts point out that backdoors can also be accessed by the bad guys, as evidenced by the recent Salt Typhoon hack of US telecoms systems designed to facilitate court-ordered wire tapping. Apple was also issued a gag order not to reveal the UK government's demands. It's only thanks to a whistleblower leaking the story to The Washington Post that we know about it.
Other companies offering proprietary encryption products can also be subjected to secret subpoenas. This can expose sensitive data – not just to law enforcement but to threat actors such as foreign hacking groups. While it's technically feasible to backdoor open source software, the code is regularly reviewed for security bugs by the community. When it comes to secure messaging, choose FOSS options such as Signal. If you need to back up your data, Nextcloud also supports verifiable end-to-end encryption.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.