Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:33 pm by globalturbo
The Threat of Silence
Meet the groundbreaking new encryption app set to revolutionize privacy and freak out the feds.
By Ryan Gallagher|Posted
Monday, Feb. 4, 2013, at 12:21 PM ET
Silent Circle CEO Mike Janke
Courtesy of Silent Circle
For the past few months, some of the world’s leading cryptographers
have been keeping a closely guarded secret about a pioneering new
invention. Today, they’ve decided it’s time to tell all.
Back in October, the startup tech firm Silent Circle ruffled governments’ feathers with a “surveillance-proof” smartphone app
to allow people to make secure phone calls and send texts easily. Now,
the company is pushing things even further—with a groundbreaking
encrypted data transfer app that will enable people to send files
securelyfrom a smartphone or tablet at the touch of a button.
(For now, it’s just being released for iPhones and iPads, though Android
versions should come soon.) That means photographs, videos,
spreadsheets, you name it—sent scrambled from one person to another in a
matter of seconds.
“This has never been done before,” boasts Mike Janke, Silent Circle’s
CEO. “It’s going to revolutionize the ease of privacy and security.”
True, he’s a businessman with a product to sell—but I think he is right.
The technology uses a sophisticated peer-to-peer encryption technique
that allows users to send encrypted files of up to 60 megabytes through
a “Silent Text” app. The sender of the file can set it on a timer so
that it will automatically “burn”—deleting it from both devices after a
set period of, say, seven minutes. Until now, sending encrypted
documents has been frustratingly difficult for anyone who isn’t a
sophisticated technology user, requiring knowledge of how to use and
install various kinds of specialist software. What Silent Circle has
done is to remove these hurdles, essentially democratizing encryption.
It’s a game-changer that will almost certainly make life easier and
safer for journalists, dissidents, diplomats, and companies trying to
evade state surveillance or corporate espionage. Governments pushing for more snooping powers, however, will not be pleased.
By design, Silent Circle’s server infrastructure stores minimal
information about its users. The company, which is headquartered in
Washington, D.C., doesn’t retain metadata (such as times and dates calls
are made using Silent Circle), and IP server logs showing who is
visiting the Silent Circle website are currently held for only seven
days. The same privacy-by-design approach will be adopted to protect the
security of users’ encrypted files. When a user sends a picture or
document, it will be encrypted, digitally “shredded” into thousands of
pieces, and temporarily stored in a “Secure Cloud Broker” until it is
transmitted to the recipient. Silent Circle, which charges $20 a month
for its service, has no way of accessing the encrypted files because the
“key” to open them is held on the users’ devices and then deleted after
it has been used to open the files. Janke has also committed to making
the source code of the new technology available publicly “as fast as we
can,” which means its security can be independently audited by
researchers.
The cryptographers behind this innovation may be the only ones who
could have pulled it off. The team includes Phil Zimmermann, the creator
of PGP encryption, which is still considered the standard for email security;
Jon Callas, the man behind Apple’s whole-disk encryption, which is used
to secure hard drives in Macs across the world; and Vincent
Moscaritolo, a top cryptographic engineer who previously worked on PGP
and for Apple. Together, their combined skills and expertise are setting
new standards—with the results already being put to good use.
Thanks to: http://www.slate.com
Meet the groundbreaking new encryption app set to revolutionize privacy and freak out the feds.
By Ryan Gallagher|Posted
Monday, Feb. 4, 2013, at 12:21 PM ET
Silent Circle CEO Mike Janke
Courtesy of Silent Circle
For the past few months, some of the world’s leading cryptographers
have been keeping a closely guarded secret about a pioneering new
invention. Today, they’ve decided it’s time to tell all.
Back in October, the startup tech firm Silent Circle ruffled governments’ feathers with a “surveillance-proof” smartphone app
to allow people to make secure phone calls and send texts easily. Now,
the company is pushing things even further—with a groundbreaking
encrypted data transfer app that will enable people to send files
securelyfrom a smartphone or tablet at the touch of a button.
(For now, it’s just being released for iPhones and iPads, though Android
versions should come soon.) That means photographs, videos,
spreadsheets, you name it—sent scrambled from one person to another in a
matter of seconds.
“This has never been done before,” boasts Mike Janke, Silent Circle’s
CEO. “It’s going to revolutionize the ease of privacy and security.”
True, he’s a businessman with a product to sell—but I think he is right.
The technology uses a sophisticated peer-to-peer encryption technique
that allows users to send encrypted files of up to 60 megabytes through
a “Silent Text” app. The sender of the file can set it on a timer so
that it will automatically “burn”—deleting it from both devices after a
set period of, say, seven minutes. Until now, sending encrypted
documents has been frustratingly difficult for anyone who isn’t a
sophisticated technology user, requiring knowledge of how to use and
install various kinds of specialist software. What Silent Circle has
done is to remove these hurdles, essentially democratizing encryption.
It’s a game-changer that will almost certainly make life easier and
safer for journalists, dissidents, diplomats, and companies trying to
evade state surveillance or corporate espionage. Governments pushing for more snooping powers, however, will not be pleased.
By design, Silent Circle’s server infrastructure stores minimal
information about its users. The company, which is headquartered in
Washington, D.C., doesn’t retain metadata (such as times and dates calls
are made using Silent Circle), and IP server logs showing who is
visiting the Silent Circle website are currently held for only seven
days. The same privacy-by-design approach will be adopted to protect the
security of users’ encrypted files. When a user sends a picture or
document, it will be encrypted, digitally “shredded” into thousands of
pieces, and temporarily stored in a “Secure Cloud Broker” until it is
transmitted to the recipient. Silent Circle, which charges $20 a month
for its service, has no way of accessing the encrypted files because the
“key” to open them is held on the users’ devices and then deleted after
it has been used to open the files. Janke has also committed to making
the source code of the new technology available publicly “as fast as we
can,” which means its security can be independently audited by
researchers.
The cryptographers behind this innovation may be the only ones who
could have pulled it off. The team includes Phil Zimmermann, the creator
of PGP encryption, which is still considered the standard for email security;
Jon Callas, the man behind Apple’s whole-disk encryption, which is used
to secure hard drives in Macs across the world; and Vincent
Moscaritolo, a top cryptographic engineer who previously worked on PGP
and for Apple. Together, their combined skills and expertise are setting
new standards—with the results already being put to good use.
Thanks to: http://www.slate.com
