[Cryptography] Unencrypted SMS

[Ray Dillinger]

On 11/20/2015 07:53 AM, Henry Baker wrote:
> At 02:39 PM 11/18/2015, Alexis Wattel wrote:
>> [The French] found a phone in a trash bin with a text message saying "we're on our way, we are starting".
> 


Why do they think that was specifically about the attacks, in
the sense of being certain enough to consider it admissible
evidence?  It contains no information about the attacks.  It
sounds just as much like somebody who just bought a new
smartphone letting people know she's coming to a dinner party
with a few friends, and then throwing away her obsolete old
cell.  If there are no fingerprints on the phone, could it
be because it's in the middle of November and Paris is cold
enough that hands inside gloves are more comfortable?

Finally double encryption with ROT13, as Bruce put it, is
not really characteristic of this kind of operation.  In
fact it's not really characteristic of *ANYTHING* - it's
a default that anybody might use for any casual message.

So I just don't get why that phone is considered "evidence."
A clue certainly, and possibly even a relevant clue.  But
that's not the same as evidence.

				Bear

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