Security News > 2021 > June > Military infosec SNAFUs: What WhatsApp and bears in the woods can teach us
Fans of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy know how top military secrets are extracted from the enemy.
If head KGB spy Karla wanted to learn intricate details of the British military today, he'd just have to check WhatsApp.
Like those Soviet decrypts, on paper WhatsApp looks secure - if you think in standard security terms.
We do know WhatsApp is designed for ubiquitous, frictionless sharing - not an ideal attribute for an Army-wide comms system.
Designed to embody that mythical mil-spec security, it ended up costing too much, taking too long, and being broken too much.
By the time every warrior had bought their own smartphone and installed the nominally secure WhatsApp, it became at first a semi-official and then a completely official military command and control system.