How secure is Signal, anyway?
Advertisement
Here's what to know.
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
What is Signal used for?
Signal is an encrypted messaging application that is used to communicate securely. It encrypts messages from end-to-end, meaning that what a user says is encrypted on their device and isn't decrypted until it reaches the recipient. This method protects the message from being intercepted and read by anyone, including internet service providers, hackers or Signal itself, while it is in transit.
Users can also set Signal messages to disappear after a certain length of time. Users who want their messages to disappear can turn on the feature in the settings for each of their individual chats.
Who owns Signal?
Signal is owned by an independent nonprofit in the United States called the Signal Foundation. It is funded by donations from its users and by grants.
Advertisement
The foundation was started in 2018 with a $50 million donation from Brian Acton, a co-founder of WhatsApp, another messaging platform, which Facebook purchased in 2014. Acton left WhatsApp to start the Signal Foundation after disputes with Facebook, which is now known as Meta, about plans to make money from his messaging service.
Acton joined Moxie Marlinspike, a cryptographer who designed Signal's security system, to create the Signal Foundation. The foundation is structured to prevent Signal from ever having an incentive to sell user data.
'There are so many great reasons to be on Signal,' Marlinspike, who stepped down from the foundation's board in 2022, wrote in a post on the social platform X last month. 'Now including the opportunity for the vice president of the United States of America to randomly add you to a group chat for coordination of sensitive military operations. Don't sleep on this opportunity.'
Is Signal secure?
Yes. Signal is widely regarded as the most secure messaging app on the market, because of its encryption technology and other measures designed to secure users' data.
Its underlying encryption technology is open source, which means the code is made public and allows technologists outside the nonprofit to examine it and identify flaws. The technology is also licensed and used by other services, such as WhatsApp.
That encryption technology has been key when Signal has been a target of foreign hackers. Russia has attempted to surveil when Ukrainians are using Signal, and in February, Google researchers said that Russian hackers had tried to hijack users' Signal accounts. While the second attack was effective, it worked by tricking users into adding rogue devices to their Signal accounts, not by breaking Signal's encryption.
Advertisement
'Phishing attacks against people using popular applications and websites are a fact of life on the Internet,' said Jun Harada, a Signal spokesperson. 'Once we learned that Signal users were being targeted, and how they were being targeted, we introduced additional safeguards and in-app warnings to help protect people from falling victim to phishing attacks.'
In the event of a security breach, Signal is designed to retain as little user data as possible, so that minimal information is exposed. Unlike other messaging services, the company doesn't store users' contacts or other identifying data that could indicate how a person used the service.
That doesn't mean Signal is the ideal service for communicating war plans. If a user's device is compromised, their Signal messages could be read -- and using a government-approved communication system could prevent officials from inadvertently including a journalist in a war planning discussion.
Is Signal safe for texting?
Yes, generally, although users should be careful to vet new contacts, just as they might on any other social platform.
And when adding people to their group chats, they may want to take an extra moment to make sure they've included the right contacts.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Beat the Market Blues With These Leading Cloud Computing Stocks
An updated edition of the April 24, 2025 virtualization technology, which allows users to access and store data over the Internet without managing their physical servers and intricate IT infrastructure, cloud computing has increasingly gained prominence to drive innovation and digital transformation. This on-demand access of computing resources as services over the Internet ('the cloud' per se) has facilitated the development of cutting-edge technologies. Cloud computing allows multiple users to share the same hardware resources by connecting to the cloud platform through a web browser or dedicated applications, creating the framework for seamless omnichannel customer cloud computing gains traction with greater flexibility and scalability, it has emerged as an attractive theme for investors seeking to invest in blue-chip tech firms. This has made cloud computing companies like Microsoft Corporation MSFT, Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, Inc. AMZN and Arista Networks Inc. ANET indispensable for any investment portfolio. But before digging deep into these prized possessions, let us delve a little more into why organizations are increasingly adopting cloud computing eliminates fixed capital expenses pertaining to the purchase of related hardware and software. It reduces the operating costs of maintaining onsite data centers and deploying IT experts to manage the infrastructure, making it highly cost-effective. Based on a pay-per-use pricing model, enterprises only pay for the computing resources they use. With easy access to a plethora of innovative technologies, it increases productivity with greater agility and flexibility, and improves scalability with higher economies of scale. Moreover, cloud computing services are delivered over a highly secure network with low latency for applications and data backup facilities for improved computing services fall into four broad categories, namely infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), serverless and software as a service (SaaS), offering different levels of control, flexibility and management options to business enterprises. Cloud computing, relying heavily on virtualization and automation technologies, provides the requisite infrastructure for AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning (ML) workloads. It delivers powerful computing abilities to process and analyze data, creating an ideal platform for Big Data Grand View Research, the global cloud computing market size was estimated at $752.4 billion in 2024 and is expected to witness a CAGR of 20.4% from 2025 to 2030, with a variety of capabilities across multiple industries. These include better patient monitoring and outcomes in healthcare, personalized financial management and predictive spending, immersive learning in education, superior inventory management in retail and predictive maintenance and better supply chain management in the manufacturing sector. If you intend to capitalize on this buzzing trend, our Cloud Computing Thematic Screen could make it easy to identify high-potential stocks in this domain at any given time, just like the four mentioned above. By leveraging advanced tools, our thematic screens identify companies shaping the future, making it easier to benefit from emerging trends. Ready to uncover more transformative thematic investment ideas? Explore 30 cutting-edge investment themes with and discover your next big opportunity. Microsoft is one of the prominent public cloud providers that can deliver a wide variety of IaaS and PaaS solutions at scale. Microsoft Azure, its cloud computing platform, allows users to build, run and scale applications in the cloud. It offers a variety of services, including storage, networking, analytics and AI. Microsoft has doubled down on the cloud computing opportunity. Azure's increased availability in more than 60 announced regions globally has strengthened Microsoft's competitive position in the cloud computing market. Operating through a vast network of global data centers that ensure high availability and reliability for applications, Azure offers seamless access to all the services included in the portal once customers subscribe to it. Subscribers can use these services to create cloud-based resources, such as virtual machines (VMs) and databases, which can then be assembled into running environments used to host workloads and store Microsoft continues to push the boundaries of networking technology, it aims to create innovative, resilient and secure solutions that enable businesses to leverage AI and the cloud to their fullest potential. It is heavily investing in AI-powered cloud services, integrating Azure OpenAI Service, Copilot and ML into various cloud solutions, making AI a central feature of Azure to empower organizations to manage their applications with greater confidence and efficiency. Microsoft carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks has been growing rapidly in the booming cloud-computing market. Over the last few years, the company has evolved from primarily being a search engine provider to a leading provider of cloud computing technology. Google Cloud has turned out to be the key catalyst behind the company's growth, driven by its strengthening cloud service solid adoption of the Google Cloud Platform and Google Workspace and continued investments in infrastructure, security, data management, analytics and AI have helped Google to expand its cloud footprint worldwide. The increasing number of cloud regions and availability zones globally has been a hallmark of Google Cloud. Currently, Google Cloud has 40 cloud regions, 121 availability zones and 187 network edge locations across more than 200 countries. Google Cloud is considered the third-largest cloud player among numerous cloud providers growing GenAI capabilities and significant investments in cloud computing are potential catalysts for the future amid stiff competition in the cloud space and increasing regulatory headwinds. This Zacks Rank #3 company's dominant position in the search engine market and strong position in the cloud are long-term enjoys a dominant position in the cloud-computing market, particularly in the IaaS space, thanks to Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is one of its high-margin-generating businesses. The expanding customer base of AWS, driven by its strengthening cloud offerings, will continue to aid Amazon's dominance in the global cloud space. AWS is the world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted on-demand cloud computing platform, offering more than 200 fully featured services from data centers globally. Millions of customers, including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises and leading government agencies, are using AWS to lower costs, become more agile and innovate faster. It reportedly offers the widest variety of databases that are purpose-built for different types of applications to enable subscribers to choose the right tool for the aims to extend AWS' AI and ML capabilities to facilitate improved decision-making. This Zacks Rank #3 company intends to expand its global infrastructure for faster and more reliable service with low latency and maximum availability. From cloud-native applications and AI-driven solutions to edge computing and sustainability initiatives, AWS is likely to push the limits in the realm of cloud computing provides cloud networking solutions for data centers and cloud computing environments. At the core of the company's cloud networking solutions is the Linux-based Extensible Operating System (EOS), which supports leading cloud and virtualization solutions, including Microsoft System Center, OpenStack and other cloud management addition to high capacity and easy availability, its cloud networking solutions promise predictable performance, along with programmability that enables integration with third-party applications for network management, automation and orchestration. Arista provides routing and switching platforms with industry-leading capacity, low latency, port density and power efficiency. The company boasts a multi-domain modern software approach built upon a unique and differentiating foundation, the single EOS and CloudVision stack. The versatility of Arista's unified software stack across various use cases, including WAN routing and campus and data center infrastructure, sets it apart from other competitors in the industry. With customers increasingly deploying transformative cloud networking solutions, the company has announced several additions to its multi-cloud and cloud-native software product family with CloudEOS Edge. This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock has introduced cognitive Wi-Fi software that delivers intelligent application identification, automated troubleshooting and location services. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Inc. (AMZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Insider
2 hours ago
- Business Insider
Patreon has become a goldmine for podcasters. 3 creators explain how they use the platform and how much they earn.
The most loyal fans of podcasts aren't just good listeners — they're paying customers. While podcasters often earn money from advertisements that run during their episodes, many are finding success turning listeners into paid subscribers. Patreon, a community subscription platform, has become a go-to tool for content creators with podcasts to do just that. "Most podcast listeners and podcast fans are just familiar with Patreon," Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, host of the "Therapy for Black Girls" podcast, told Business Insider. Her podcast launched a Patreon in April. Patreon now has more than 6.7 million paid memberships under the podcasting category, the company said. In April, Patreon announced a new partnership program with podcast networks like Amazon-owned Wondery and Sony Music. Podcasting is also Patreon's highest-earning category. In 2024, podcasters on the platform collectively earned more than $472 million, Patreon told BI. Patreon, which takes a cut of earnings from paid memberships ranging from 5% to 12%, isn't the only platform creators use to monetize their podcast audiences. A slew of community-focused platforms, like Mighty Networks and Fourthwall, offer tools around paid memberships. Larger social media platforms, such as YouTube and Discord, have also dabbled in paid memberships for creators. BI spoke with the creators behind three podcasts that host memberships on Patreon. For each of them, maintaining a paywall around some of their content and offering perks like access to a Discord helps diversify their incomes. "Because we get so much of our revenue through Patreon, we have a lot of leeway with the ads we get to choose," said Aiden McCaig, a cohost of "The Yard" podcast, which has over 412,000 subscribers on YouTube. "We say no to a lot of ad reads and a lot of companies that ask to work with us because we have the financial flexibility to do so." Here's how three podcasts are using Patreon — and how much money they earn: Note: Business Insider verified creators' earnings with Patreon. 'Therapy for Black Girls' is using Patreon to connect with its community. What it is: "Therapy for Black Girls" is a podcast hosted by psychologist Dr. Joy Harden Bradford. The brand was founded in 2014 as a blog and launched a podcast in 2017, as well as a Facebook group and a network of therapists. The podcast joined Patreon in April. Before moving to Patreon to host its paid community, the podcast used Mighty Networks. It also has a licensing partnership with iHeartMedia, which handles the podcast's advertising. "Community really has always been at the heart of what we do with 'Therapy for Black Girls,' specifically with the podcast," Harden Bradford said. How they do it: "Therapy for Black Girls" offers two tiers on Patreon — one is $10 a month and another is $14 a month. Paying members get access to ad-free versions of the podcast, as well as access to podcast episodes that aren't available elsewhere, such as its "So My Therapist Said…" series. "We're definitely doing content release drops when there's a new episode of one of our segments," COO Ashley Cherry said. "But we're also posting outside of that … to get people talking in the comments to really cultivate a sense of community." Its higher tier also unlocks more virtual events for its community, such as weekly check-ins where members can talk about their lives or do journaling prompts together. Members receive perks like early access to tickets for in-person events, merch, and giveaways. True crime podcast 'RedHanded' became a full-time job for its cohost because of Patreon. What it is: "RedHanded" is a true crime podcast hosted by Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire, who are both based in the UK. The podcast launched in 2017 and joined Patreon the same year. Maguire told BI that if it weren't for the podcast's earnings on Patreon, she wouldn't have been able to quit her previous job to pursue podcasting full time. "RedHanded" is part of the Wondery podcast network and gets paid a guaranteed minimum as part of its deal. How much they earn from Patreon: about $59,000 a month How they do it: "RedHanded" offers three tiers, which start at $4 a month and go up to $18 a month. "We spent a long time, many years, really finessing the tiers that we now have on there and the way in which we monetize it," Bala said. The lowest tier unlocks ad-free episodes that fans can listen to a day early, and access to audio episodes of the team's second podcast series, "Under the Duvet." The middle tier also unlocks a monthly bonus episode of "RedHanded" and a video version of "Under the Duvet." "RedHanded's" most expensive tier gives subscribers access to the podcast's full library of content. "RedHanded's" Patreon accounts for about 25% of the podcasts' revenue now, Bala estimated. Comedy podcast 'The Yard' earns 6 figures a month. What it is:"The Yard" is a podcast cohosted by four friends, including Twitch streamer Ludwig Ahgren. The podcast launched in 2021 and is one of the top podcasts on Patreon, with more than 58,000 members — about 37,000 of whom are paid subscribers. The Yard is part of The Roost podcast network. How they do it: The Yard offers four tiers on Patreon, ranging from $5 to $69, which each unlock bonus episodes of the main podcast and access to the podcast's Discord group. Its higher tiers unlock exclusive shows, like one where two of the cohosts share commentary on Disney Channel Original Movies, as well as merch discounts. "The main bonus episode is probably the root offer of what you're getting," McCaig said. "The community element grew a lot over time, and there are a lot of people that like the Discord community that we have, and that's probably a part of the reason that they keep their sub is so that they can be there." McCaig said that compared to YouTube, where keeping viewers' attention can plateau over time, running a Patreon lets The Yard protect itself from user churn. "Any superfan, once you convert them into a patron, is less likely to leave that than someone who watches your podcast for free sometimes on YouTube," McCaig said.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Analyst Says Meta Platforms (META) Should Be ‘Core Portion' of Your Portfolio
Jeffrey Small from Arbor Financial recently said during a program on Schwab Network that Meta Platforms should be a key part of investors' portfolios. Here is how he explained his bull case for the social media giant: "I like Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) for the same storyline of their fundamentals. Their fundamentals are very strong. Three and a half billion people on the planet. They're incorporating AI in all of their platforms. They're mastering that. They're going to monetize that. And I think you've got to make that a core portion of your portfolio going forward because of the fundamental side of the picture. And so that's really what draws me to them besides the fact that they are really slightly underpriced compared to most of the MAG 7 stocks." Photo by Timothy Hales Bennett on Unsplash Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) biggest strength remains its huge user base, which continues to grow despite record levels. The company has 3.43 billion monthly active users as of March, up 6% year over year. This equals about half of the world's total population, giving the company immense power for monetization and data processing. The company also raised its capex guide for the year from $60-$65 billion to $64-$72 billion, crushing concerns about an AI and data center slowdown. Another overlooked element in Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) business is its ads growth. The company, which depends on advertising for 98% of its revenue, is growing at a rate of 21% YoY. In comparison, Google Search grew by 9%, while Alphabet's overall business, including Cloud and Services, expanded by 12%. Even YouTube's year-on-year growth stands at 11%, well below Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) rate. Given Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) current growth, Wall Street's estimates of 21% EBIT growth and 18% OCF growth seem conservative compared to the tailwinds the company is benefiting from right now. Nightview Capital stated the following regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in its Q4 2024 investor letter: 'Core Opportunity: Meta Platforms, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:META) platforms—Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Messenger—reach nearly half the world's population daily, making it one of the most powerful advertising ecosystems globally. With investments in AI and augmented reality (AR), we believe Meta is also creating significant optionality for long-term growth. READ NEXT: and . Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Melden Sie sich an, um Ihr Portfolio aufzurufen.
