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Startup Provides Secure Calls For Egypt
An anonymous reader writes "As the technology used to fuel democracy protests in Egypt continues to evolve, Whisper Systems, the company founded by well-known security researcher Moxie Marlinspike, just released encrypted calling and text messaging applications into Egypt to help keep protesters safe from surveillance."
They way things are going we may need that here in the USA sometime in the next few years.
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed H
Can they do something about those unwanted text messages sent to cell phones? Too many of the new cell phone users in Arab countries are getting prematurely detonated by unwelcome messages.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
In the places you need to use this the most just using this app will be grounds for a head kicking. The classic "You're trying to maintain your own privacy/secrecy, you must be up to something bad."
An odd story. The company (Whisper Systems) makes software (for Android systems only, apparently) that supports VoIP and SMS encryption. But it also has a history of rolling over for repressive governments, providing them with user data, and allowing them (well, Egypt's government, anyway) to send propaganda messages via their systems. It sounds like this "beta" software is also available in the US. But what good does it do to use software from a company that will just rat you out to whatever government snaps its fingers?
Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary
When a governmental regime is on the verge of collapse, they tend to apply their laws a lot more loosely. Especially with a state security apparatus such as what exists in Egypt (since they've been doing things like this for the past 30 years) they won't even bother trying to break into communications. All you have to do is download it, or have your traffic intercepted. If they are able to tell you are using it (doesn't matter if you are calling your friends to plan a protest, asking how your mom's operation went, or even just voting for American Idol) they will pick you up. And if they do pick you up, it takes a lot less technological know-how to break a person than it does breaking an encryption.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Else this will be another Haystack. People's lives are potentially at stake here.
The subtext of all this ubiquitous commentary is that technology invented in the USA is helping these poor plebs in less advanced countries to win their freedom and hence become more American-like.
It is, of course, a load of bollox.
The role of new media has been picked up by the mainstream western press and held up as if it would never have happened without this technology and hence allows the west to take credit for this uprising. The fact that the era of cheap food has come to an end, the demographics of the Arab world and the middle east has produced a massive generation of young people, and people are willing to organise by any means available including good old fashioned word-of-mouth doesn't have the same soundbite-friendly ring to it.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
are allowing this. It wouldn't be hard at all to put this down with a modern military (which Egypt more or less has). Maybe there's just be too much attention from the rest of the world & they're afraid of being 'liberated' by the US.
Iran was on the verge of that, but they got lucky and Micheal Jackson died. The distraction was enough for them to go back to oppressing their people, but unless the Pope buys it I don't think there's anyone else in the world now important enough to distract the entire planet at once.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
This posting was made for people being able to see two parts of an argument. If you are not able to understand that issues have many facets be free to skip it.
USA made number 17 on the Economists democracy index. And that was just barely. The ones who wrote this index was actually partial to USA. They gave USA a good rating because of the high participation in political parties. They should have been ranked lower because the voter-participation is low in USA. So, there are some points that could be argued. Surveillance is one genuine concern from Americans. Civil rights is another. There is much room for improvements. Actually Canada is considered a better democracy then USA. But, when people talk about the most democratic countries there is much propaganda about this and that country being better then the other one. I guess it is a measuring-contest. Also, I think we should start to factor in if a country has democratic or non-democratic influence on other countries.
On the other hand USA is a real democracy. It is one of the countries the 1/8th of the world population who have real democracy lives in. There are elites in USA, but some of the elites change place from time to time. It is possible to have a very good life in USA. But, then you have to have the right choices and take the right choices. It depends on luck and work. All countries have some of that.
What of Zfone?
This is all good, but what about email? Shouldn't we be pushing more for the adoption of PGP and/or S/MIME?
And while we're at it, why does it seem like adoption of those technologies is actually dropping? FireGPG recently lost its GMail support and GMail closed the google labs bit that verified signatures.
That was sarcasm. If people want encrypted VoIP, they'll load Skype. There are already umteen million Skype users, so there is an actual possibility there will be someone to use it with.
Wake me when they write an Android/iPhone app that can insert itself into a traditional voice call, encrypting the voice stream without using VoIP.
Activate it with a hash code (# or *) for a "push to go secure" bit.
Obviously it'll only work if the person on the other end has the same software, but not relying on a 3G data channel would be a major step forward.
Good luck with that, by the way. Short of giving everyone OpenMoko hockey-puck phones, good luck in finding a way to insert yourself into the voice stream on a traditional cell phone.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
A lot of other companies are providing VoIP encryption targeted for similar countries. One example is here: http://www.mizu-voip.com/Products/VoIPTunnel.aspx
xkcd has it right: http://xkcd.com/538/. I can appreciate the appeal of such encryption software but it is also necessary to be cognizant of the situation. Encrypted communications do not keep you safe from the communications being observed. That fact that those communications are encrypted will likely make you a target of interest for those surveilling the communication. If you're dealing with thugs who don't like what you're doing, things are going to get down to basics pretty quickly. Neither subtlety nor sophistication nor cleverness will help you in such a situation.
Has he also released this for the people of Cuba?
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Democracy protest my backside - how naive can you yanks be......
This from a Pew poll taken recently in Egypt
Among highlights from the Pew poll:
49% of Egyptians say Islam plays only a "small role" in public affairs under President Hosni Mubarak, while 95% prefer the religion play a "large role in politics."
84% favor the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim faith.
82% support stoning adulterers.
77% think thieves should have their hands cut off.
54% support a law segregating women from men in the workplace.
54% believe suicide bombings that kill civilians can be justified.
Nearly half support the terrorist group Hamas.
30% have a favorable opinion of Hezbollah.
20% maintain positive views of al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden.
82% of Egyptians dislike the U.S. — the highest unfavorable rating among the 18 Muslim nations Pew surveyed.
dusthillresident@gmail.com
The extremist in the media in collaboration with sheep voters, progressive socialist unions new world order folks.
Some seem to think the 3rd party is an expedient low effort choice, all it requires is absolute commitment to apathy.
These people are not free, they vote as a mindless block and cripple any real democratic debate.
Here's the transcript of mubarack speech tonight:
You know the rules and so do I
A full commitment's what I'm thinking of
You wouldn't get this from any other guy
I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling
Gotta make you understand
Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you
We've known each other for so long
Your heart's been aching but
You're too shy to say it
Inside we both know what's been going on
We know the game and we're gonna play it
http://tinyurl.com/2g9mqh
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
It's amazing how close that is to what he actually said!
Anything like that (encrypted calls and text message apps) available for Maemo and Meego?
Out of interest: can apps for Android, which AFAIK is basically a custom-Linux distro, be used on Maemo/Meego?
It's not open source. The vast majority of all proprietary encryption products are flawed or intentionally flawed. In fact, I would say that nearly all of the products that have been scrutinized by experts (i.e. reverse engineered, etc.) have turned out to be seriously flawed. The ones that don't appear to have buggy implementations just haven't interested anyone enough yet to take a closer look.
That was sarcasm. If people want encrypted VoIP, they'll load Skype. There are already umteen million Skype users, so there is an actual possibility there will be someone to use it with.
The wonder of Android phones is that you can download and install software on it. Much like if you wish to speak to somebody on Skype both parties must install the requisite software, this also works with other software too.
Wake me when they write an Android/iPhone app that can insert itself into a traditional voice call, encrypting the voice stream without using VoIP.
Whilst you were asleep, traditional voice calls have switched from analogue to digital. It's now all packet based behind the scenes.
Obviously it'll only work if the person on the other end has the same software, but not relying on a 3G data channel would be a major step forward.
Eg Wifi? From here: "In contrast to many other SIP programs, RedPhone does not use a SIP gateway for communication, but establishes a direct connection to the other (RedPhone) user via WLAN or UMTS."
Good luck with that, by the way. Short of giving everyone OpenMoko hockey-puck phones, good luck in finding a way to insert yourself into the voice stream on a traditional cell phone.
Forcing me to pay for calls rather than calling for free where I have wifi? This is an advantage?
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
The wonder of Android phones is that you can download and install software on it. Much like if you wish to speak to somebody on Skype both parties must install the requisite software, this also works with other software too.
Which, if you note, I said "assuming the other person has the same software on the other end".
Whilst you were asleep, traditional voice calls have switched from analogue to digital. It's now all packet based behind the scenes.
While napping, I spent 5 years as a telecom engineer with Alcatel-Lucent. 2 of those years were as a CALEA specialist. That is, cell phone wiretapping.
In short, I know what I'm talking about and analog vs digital wasn't it.
My reference to OpenMoko was that it was the only phone that had a fully open hardware and software stack, including access to the telephony and GSM radio components. Even the Nokia N900 doesn't allow that.
The difficulty of inserting into the voice stream is in gaining access to it thru the firmware, not that it is digital packets.
Forcing me to pay for calls rather than calling for free where I have wifi? This is an advantage?
Considering GSM signals have, what, 10,000x more coverage around the globe than wifi? Yes. What factor does that rise to when looking at only OPEN wifi?
And, of course, almost every open, public wifi spot has some sort of must-submit-the-form authentication before allowing you on, so that brings wifi as the answer down to a number rapidly approaching zero.
For now. Super cheap, self configuring wifi mesh has a great deal of potential.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Hopefully you will still see this reply (just seen yours). The chances of somebody having Skype are still small in overall terms. As a general rule, family/friends will agree on whatever is convenient at the time. Here in France our group of friends shifted as one to a certain operator as they allowed free mobile calls between that operator. If a group wish to talk to each other they may choose Fring, Skype, Wengo, or whatever else, and everybody will just install that app. It's quick and simple, and there is nothing to stop a smartphone having several installed at the same time.
I have also worked as a telecoms engineer, and did my masters in the subject, but my comment was my perhaps poor attempt at sarcasm rather than an aspersion on your qualifications. It was your choice of "traditional voice call" I objected to. Though there may be different trade-offs at the transport layer (quality, error correction, etc) it is still slinging packets around. The thrust of your argument appears to be that you want your encryption layer embedded at a lower level, and mine is that is no longer needed (and in fact disadvantageous).
GSM may have wider coverage but it can still carry packet data. The quality of call may deteriorate but that is the price you pay for your secure line. The authentication only occurs in the more advanced countries in my, albeit limited, travels so far where my calls are cheaper anyway. I learned to appreciate free Wifi nearly everywhere in my travels in Eastern Europe, after making voice calls and running up several hundred dollars in a day using my regular operator.
Self-configuring wifi mesh, femto cells, etc are great long term projects. VoIP with decent encryption is a good stop-gap for now.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
Thanks for the intelligent replies.
My main thrust was the ability to insert itself into the GSM stream because GSM 2/2.5G is so much more prevalent and thus has the potential for reaching a wider audience. While I have T-Mobile "4G" in the city where I work, they still don't have 3G coverage out in the rural area where I live. All I get is EDGE.
It has been 20+ years since I've been to Eastern Europe, and that was well before Wifi. In fact, there was this whole Iron Curtain thing at the time... :-)
I wonder what it would take to make super-cheap, voice/SMS cell phones with push button PK crypto. Some of the cheapest handsets out of China, modified with voice crypto and key exchange thru SMS.
Hmmm...
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.