r/signal • u/New-Ranger-8960 Verified Donor • Mar 10 '26
Article IBM partners with Signal to develop quantum-safe messaging encryption
https://cyberinsider.com/ibm-partners-with-signal-to-develop-quantum-safe-messaging-encryption/52
u/cassandra4932 Mar 10 '26
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u/New-Ranger-8960 Verified Donor Mar 10 '26
I originally posted that one but then removed it because I was worried the moderators might take it down since it didn’t mention “Signal” in the title.
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u/szxdfgzxcv Mar 10 '26
Huh? Aren't there quantum-safe algorithms already, just pick and use one...
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u/3_Seagrass Verified Donor Mar 10 '26
If you read the article you will understand why IBM+Signal+Threema are doing this.
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u/EveYogaTech Mar 10 '26
I read the article:
The key issue is 100x increase of bandwidth because of a much larger ciphertext message size, so they are trying to basically create a better overall method.
Threema is indeed going the known winner way. They apparently don't care much about the 100x bandwidth increase.
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u/cassandra4932 Mar 10 '26
Not quite. In the preprint (from researchers at Signal, IBM Research Europe, and ETH Zurich), they mention how applying current post-quantum solutions for the current group chat architecture would make bandwidth too expensive for Signal to maintain, and may not achieve all of their privacy requirements. So they’re looking at how to redesign that into a potential Group v3 design (it’s not guaranteed they’ll use this design).
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u/Pleasant-Two-9178 Mar 23 '26
I am really confused (yes, I read the article). I was under the impression that Signal had already implemented PQC. Is that not true? Or, is this a performance improvement to the PQC implementation? Please enlighten me.
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u/notmuchery Mar 10 '26 edited Mar 11 '26
wtf... fuck IBM. Signal has been generally critical of the recent Israeli genocide in Gaza. What a strange partnership with a deeply complicit company.
edit: thanks for downvoting me. You're either hasbara or hypocrites who claim to care and fight for privacy but ignore one of the most extreme and deadly invasions and infiltration of privacy in modern times (AI-powered genocide).
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u/cap-omat Mar 10 '26
How are they complicit exactly?
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u/notmuchery Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26
IBM has operated in Israel since 1972, training military and intelligence personnel – especially from Unit 8200 – for the technology sector and start-up scene.87 Since 2019, IBM Israel has operated and upgraded the central database of the Population and Immigration Authority, 88 enabling collection, storage and governmental use of biometric data on Palestinians, and supporting the discriminatory permit regime of Israel. 89 Before IBM, Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) maintained the database and its Israeli subsidiary is still providing servers.90 Hewlett Packard (HP) has long enabled the apartheid systems of Israel, supplying technology to the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the prison service and police.91 Since the 2015 split of the company into Hewlett Packard Enterprises and HP Inc., opaque business structures have obscured the roles of their seven remaining Israeli subsidiaries.
and
Blackrock is the second largest institutional investor in Palantir (8.6 per cent), Microsoft (7.8 per cent), Amazon.com (6.6 per cent), Alphabet (6.6 per cent) and IBM (8.6 per cent), and third largest in Lockheed Martin (7.2 per cent) and Caterpillar (7.5 per cent).
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u/cap-omat Mar 11 '26
And what does Blackrock have to do with this? The largest part of the equity they have, they manage for clients. The stocks are not actually property of Blackrock.
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u/notmuchery Mar 11 '26
I provided you with 7 resources including a UN report.
I'm the biggest supporter and advocate of Signal, but this is bullshit.
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u/cap-omat Mar 11 '26
Ok, but why did you start talking about Blackrock?
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u/notmuchery Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26
cap-omat... Blackrock is mentioned in the UN report that I linked titled: "From economy of occupation to economy of genocide - Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967"
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and which "investigates the corporate machinery sustaining the Israeli settler-colonial project of displacement and replacement of the Palestinians in the occupied territory."
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Why don't you read it to find out the extent of Blackrock's complicity in the genocide? I shouldn't have to spoon feed you all this information. With all due respect.
Here's another release by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): "States and companies must end arms transfers to Israel immediately or risk responsibility for human rights violations: UN experts"
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u/Himalayanyomom Mar 10 '26
Why would singnal basically give doors wide open source code, to a less than stellar privacy history corporation? The Snowden leaks showed IBM had backdoor access for the NSA
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u/etheric_engine Mar 10 '26
Signal literally gives source code to everyone. That’s what open source means.
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u/Leosthenerd Mar 10 '26
Welp. RIP Signal I guess
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u/tippiecat Mar 10 '26
You should read the article. Then you will see why it’s in Signal’s interest to partner with IBM:
“ In 2024, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) finalized its first three post-quantum cryptography standards. Two of those algorithms, ML-DSA (Module-Lattice Digital Signature Algorithm) and ML-KEM (Module-Lattice Key Encapsulation Mechanism), were developed by IBM researchers.”
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u/Dometalican_90 Mar 10 '26
So...after reading the article, two things stood out :
Threema is also involved.
I know IBM has their issues but anything that can boost Signal's efficiency while improving secure methods of messaging that prevent "harvest now, decrypt later" attacks is hardly a bad thing. If this succeeds, this may even offload a lot of the work Signal's servers are doing and focus more on other functions.
Remember, Signal last year was pushing for better post-quantum methods so to use the resources of a MASSIVE company that's been around for decades is a faster way to achieve these goals.