Email Privacy Pioneer Launches Silent Circle To Protect Mobile, Internet CallsReported by redOrbit on Tuesday, 14 August 2012 (on August 14, 2012)
|
*redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online*
An Internet privacy veteran and inventor of a popular email encryption scheme is launching a suite of new products next month that will allow people to scramble their mobile phone calls, e-mails, text messages and Internet voice and video calls.
Phil Zimmermann, creator of the standard email encryption known as PGP, which stands for ‘Pretty Good Privacy’, will roll out the private, encrypted communications tools on September 17 through his company, Silent Circle.
The software will be available for download to iPhones, Androids, desktops and laptops worldwide, and will give customers the ability to scramble their mobile and Internet voice calls and messages, including those conducted via Skype and FaceTime.
The encryption works on a peer-to-peer basis, meaning it is best used on a private network with both parties within the system. The system will still work if only one person is within the network, but the message will only be scrambled as far as Silent Circle's servers. Subscription to the private network will cost $20 per month.
Once the software is downloaded, it generates a code that scrambles messages on that particular device. The code is used only once and then destroyed; meaning that even if someone steals a customer’s computer or other device and manages to break the code, messages will still be unreadable.
Silent Circle's chief operating officer, Vic Hyder, is one of two former Navy SEALs working with Zimmermann and PGP Corporation co-founder Jon Callas.
Hyder says one of the motivations for starting Silent Circle was giving members of the U.S. military stationed overseas as secure way to phone home.
"With 25 years in the Navy, I know all about that," he told CNN.
"It's very difficult to take care of your personal business."
Indeed, plenty of people, including hackers, marketing firms, corporate competitors and governments, are working to get their hands on our private data.
"We have a fashion designer who sends her designs to her production facility in China," Hyder said.
"Before the first template's come out, it's already been sold in Pakistan or Bangladesh."
Hyder said another Silent Circle customer, a bank in Canada, wants the software to offer secure lines to its clients, thereby limiting its liability should any account data disclosed over the phone make its way into the wrong hands.
Silent Circle chose to locate its servers in Canada because it believes the country has better privacy laws.
Governments throughout the world typically have regulations allowing them to monitor or collect certain private electronic communications.
Jonathan Evans, Director General of the British Security Service MI5, recently defended plans that would give the spy agency greater surveillance powers over Internet use, saying the expanded authority was needed to keep up with cyber-criminals and terrorists using new technologies.
But such growing government surveillance has raised concerns among privacy and civil liberties advocates, who are welcoming new products such as those offered by Silent Circle.
Eric King of London-based Privacy International said he expects Silent Circle’s new products to provide true security while being easy to use.
"Phil and his team have pedigree in this field, so this is probably good news for anyone that values their privacy -- from businessmen in London to human rights defenders in Syria," he told CNN, adding that he was awaiting independent reviews of Silent Circle’s offerings.
Zimmermann, who originally designed PGP in the 1990s as a human-rights tool, said he has always felt strongly about the right to private communications. Such systems should be also be simple to use, he said, so that a user merely dials a number and no one else is able to listen in on the call.
"I should be able to whisper in your ear, even if your ear is a thousand miles away," he said in an advertising video for Silent Circle.
Hyder said interest in the company’s products has been broad, "from Hong Kong to Chile, from the Czech Republic to Uganda."
However, he expects some governments will have reservations about their citizens being able to keep their communications private.
"They would have to block the website -- but that would be good marketing for the service," he said, tongue-in-cheek.
While the worldwide launch of the Silent Circle’s service is still a month away, anyone interested can sign up for updates at https://silentcircle.com/.
Links:  Full news story
|
|
| | Recent related news |
| |
guardian.co.uk
9 hours ago | The reporters must have known they were being a bit fly, but a story's a story, especially a story... |
guardian.co.uk
21 hours ago | Amid all the talk of Brazil and China, British companies are targeting the wealthy millions in the... |
guardian.co.uk
2 days ago | Alexander Lebedev is to appear in a Moscow court on charges of hooliganism after punching a rival on... |
Huffington Post
2 days ago | *By Andrea Ozretic*
With our May 16 Techonomy Lab: Man, Machines, and the Network in Menlo Park... |
redOrbit
3 days ago | *Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online*
Four more LulzSec hackers said to have... |
| |
guardian.co.uk
3 days ago | Sun+ service predicted to result in drop in online ad revenue with NI also paying £30m-plus for... |
DailyFinance
6 days ago | Filed under: Technology, Retail, Stocks, Investing
*Getty Images*
From the new Xbox gaming... |
Business Insider
1 week ago | -David Rosenberg: A Bond Bull Turns Bearish
-Wage Inflation?
-Skills Versus Education
-Kyle Bass... |
guardian.co.uk
1 week ago | Do you use the same password for all websites? Do you overshare on Facebook? If so, you're a target... |
| |
|
|
|
|
Facebook
E-mail
Twitter
Mixx
StumbleUpon
FriendFeed