In UK, Murdoch's "News of the World" hacks into the phones of hundreds of people and politicians continue the debate about privacy as if it doesn't matter.
In US, Russia hacks into Hillary's email server and politicians on Capitol Hill start using Whispering Systems' Signal and begin to understand why strong encryption is necessary.
Don't worry too much, someday Vladimir Putin will show to the UK government why strong encryption is a good idea.
I heard someone explaining how the phone hacking worked the other day (Steve Coogan in a great chat with Adam Buxton on YT for anyone who likes them). Two journalists would phone the target at the same time. One kept them talking, the other could be sure to get their voicemail because the line was busy. They'd try the default password of 0000 which 'nobody bothers changing' (I may have the number wrong, I'm going from memory and don't use voicemail) and frequently, it worked. So in terms of skillz it's somewhere up there with the fappening... default passwords, encryption wouldn't have prevented it.
Ironically, private Whatsapp is extremely important in the UK government at the moment - it's where all the anti-PM plotting is carried out. Or so the leakers say.
I do find it interesting that UK politics has not yet been visited by the email leak fairy. I don't know what conclusions to draw from this though.
In US, Russia hacks into Hillary's email server and politicians on Capitol Hill start using Whispering Systems' Signal and begin to understand why strong encryption is necessary.
Don't worry too much, someday Vladimir Putin will show to the UK government why strong encryption is a good idea.