Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: chaosmix on February 27, 2013, 08:42 am
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anybody know of an app that works with both the iphone and android devices that would enable encryption of messages. the messages would need to then be decrypted with a password. basically something like pgp that would work with both devices? will compensate .75 btc for info on program that would work for my situation. be back on later today if i dont get to you right away. as usual the first post with the right answer wins it.
also i will need the prices of the app or if different apps will work together then let me know this for sure as well,thnks
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On Android, look up apg in the store. It's gpg for Android. Programs written for Android are in Java, and the iPhone has a different set of support libraries and uses... I don't remember, C# or Objective-C. So you're probably not going to find a single program that runs on both platforms. With versions for both platforms maybe, sure, but I don't know of one.
apg is free.
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Wickr, its free and works.
Don't need the coins though you can keep them :)
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gibberbot aka chatsecure aka OTR-Plugin for pidgin. works on on any android, new iphones, every pc or mac or linux.
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Use threema . Android Version ETA about 4 weeks.
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Silent Circle, without a doubt. They have a whole suite of apps for both OS's. It costs a little bit more than some of the others but here is info on it:
About Us: Created by Navy SEALs and Silicon Valley cryptography experts, Silent Circle is a global encrypted communications service offering a comprehensive suite of simple yet secure tools for your mobile devices - encrypted video, phone, text and email. Send a private text across town or whisper in someone's ear a thousand miles away. Silent Circle is revolutionizing how the world communicates – securely. Get in the Circle.
You can get three 30-day trials right now if you sign up. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I just wanted to share an awesome option with you. Search up some of the news reports about them online, they are pretty rock-solid.
https://silentcircle.com/
8)
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Silent Circle, without a doubt. They have a whole suite of apps for both OS's. It costs a little bit more than some of the others but here is info on it:
About Us: Created by Navy SEALs and Silicon Valley cryptography experts, Silent Circle is a global encrypted communications service offering a comprehensive suite of simple yet secure tools for your mobile devices - encrypted video, phone, text and email. Send a private text across town or whisper in someone's ear a thousand miles away. Silent Circle is revolutionizing how the world communicates – securely. Get in the Circle.
You can get three 30-day trials right now if you sign up. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I just wanted to share an awesome option with you. Search up some of the news reports about them online, they are pretty rock-solid.
https://silentcircle.com/
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The guy who invented PGP is one of the people involved in this company too!
Here is a great article about it: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/10/silent_circle_mike_janke_s_iphone_app_makes_encryption_easy_governments.html
"Silent Circle began as an idea Janke had after spending 12 years working for the U.S. military and later as a security contractor. When traveling overseas, he realized that there was no easy-to-use, trustworthy encrypted communications provider available to keep in touch with family back home. Cellphone calls, text messages, and emails sent over the likes of Hotmail and Gmail can just be “pulled right out of the air,” according to Janke, and he didn’t think the few commercial services offering encryption—like Skype and Hushmail—were secure enough. He was also made uneasy by reports about increased government snooping on communications. “It offended what I thought were my God-given rights—to be able to have a free conversation,” Janke says. “And so I began on this quest to find something to solve it.”
Janke assembled what he calls an “all-star team”: Phil Zimmerman, a recent inductee to the Internet’s Hall of Fame, who in 1991 invented PGP encryption, 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), became Silent Circle’s chief technology officer. Other employees were top engineers and ex-special-forces communications experts based in England, Latvia, and Germany. Together, they designed their own software, created a new encryption protocol called SCimp, registered their company offshore and outside U.S. jurisdiction, then built up their own network in Canada. (They eventually plan to expand to Switzerland and Hong Kong.)"
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You want to use Off-The-Record Messaging encryption with IM apps like gibberbot, chatsecure, IM+, xabber, bitlbee, cryptocat
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So what's the verdict, chaosmix?
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my friend and i use securechat (not to be confused with chatsecure) from keystonetech.com between my iphone and his (i'm pretty sure android) device. Seems to work well.
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my friend and i use securechat (not to be confused with chatsecure) from keystonetech.com between my iphone and his (i'm pretty sure android) device. Seems to work well.
The ONLY information in regard to the app's security abilities that can be found in the app store and developer's website is the term "Military Grade 256bit AES"
Absolutely no mention of whether encryption happens client side or server side, or how entropy is sourced, if it's symmetric or asymmetric, if asymmetric there is no mention of key exchange tech used......
also, they BRAG ABOUT ITS SEARCHABLE CHAT LOGS as a selling point.
and,you know, the full name: "Secure Chat: Chat With Encrypt" .....for some reason, the missing "ion" is all it takes to destroy any chance this company/app ever had of me giving it a second thought.
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Oh, but the recommendation of Jabber/XMPP clients paired with OTR (Off-the-Record encryption, not to be confused with google's gmail "feature" of a similar name) is my choice as well.
Xabber seems to be the best android choice, especially for less tech-savvy friends (while still maintaining options/features for more advanced users)
Iphone is lacking is this Dept..... ChatSecure is the only free iOS implementation, but it has been rife with bugs: crashing at random, logging in a new instance of each account when the app is closed/minimized then reopened, failing to initiate otr from its end (requiring other party to initiate, but would work fine after that, encryption-wise)
IM+ runs smoothly, but I have two significant complaints with it: 1. its OTR is a $5 PAID add-on! (for those who don't know, OTR is an OPEN SOURCE library for chat/IM encryption developed by cypherpunks....meaning the assholes at IM+ shouldn't be raping people for a fee they didn't earn) 2. The app has a security "feature" that stops OTR and clears any "scrollback" when the app is taken off the screen in any way....seems great until you realize how iOS handles multitasking (hint: it doesn't multitask!) sooo this renders it only good for short specific periods of time..... for however long you're willing to keep your lock screen from coming up, and not use/look at any other apps, send texts, take/make phonecalls, etc.....otherwise you just have to start over when you come back to the app.
for OSx, there is Adium (www.adium.im) that provides full OTR support on the Jabber/XMPP protocol "out of the box"...which is good, no plugin to deal wih so the MacTards in your friend group have a slight chance of making it happen without needing more than 30min of handholding! (it's the easiest thing ever. seriously, if someone has more than a slight bit of trouble, you should assume their intelligence is too low to effectively consider security concerns when necessary. )
Windows: Pidgin (www.pidgin.im) paired with the Pidgin-OTR plugin (http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/), or I prefer Miranda on windows (www.miranda-im.org) it also needs a seperate otr plugin, Jitsi is an "out of the box" otr-ready client as another option (www.jitsi.org)
and linux also has a Pidgin+otr plugin available, along with multiple other options....
These all are fully capable of using XMPP.... meaning they can all interact....encrypted with OTR if needed :)
XMPP is the IM/chat protocol used by gmail chat and facebook chat, and these can be accessed via these apps as well.
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for android messaging there are few free 3 DES programs, simple to use and quite good encryption.
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Gryphn is the new kid on the block for SMS/TExt encryption ( ONLY USE WITH ANON PREPAID CARD)
ONLY ANDROID!
CHeers!