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Secure Communication Comes To Android

Posted by kdawson on from the speak-freely-now dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Forbes is reporting that Moxie Marlinspike and Stuart Anderson's startup, Whisper Systems, has released a public beta of two Android applications that provide encrypted call and SMS capabilities for your Android phone. In the wake of recent GSM attacks, it'll be interesting to see if smartphones end up providing a platform that fundamentally changes the security we can expect from mobile communication."

2 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. We'll know it's pretty good when it's outlawed by bzzfzz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We'll know it's at least OK if the FBI and CIA start lobbying congress to outlaw it.

    We'll know it's pretty good if the NSA starts lobbying congress to outlaw it.

    The government is absolutely convinced that law enforcement will come to a screeching halt if people can communicate casually without being subject to eavesdropping. This despite the courts' general distaste for such evidence (people rarely speak candidly in phone conversations regarding criminal enterprises and therefore establishing context and the meaning of codewords becomes a prosecutorial hurdle), and the paucity of successful prosecutions built primarily on the strength of intercepts.

    So we've had cryptography treated as a munition. And clipper. And CALEA.

    Of course, if the keys are on a server somewhere they can always just subpoena them.

  2. Re:Less useful by stephanruby · · Score: 4, Interesting

    While interesting, these apps aren't that useful because the other caller would have to be using the same software for it to work which limits it to just a few people using Android with these apps.

    These apps may not be useful to *you*, but they will certainly be useful to governments, a few companies, and some of the more vigilant/paranoid tin-foil hat wearers among us. In any case, what we need is a free open source solution that does encryption.

    The number of Android users is not that big right now, but Android is coming very fast from behind, and with Google taking 0% of the commissions from their Market/App stores (leaving the entire 30% in perpetuity to the carriers/phone makers), I speculate that Android will really become the #1 dominant platform eventually.