Insights For Success

Strategy, Innovation, Leadership and Security

Secure Telephony

Silent Circle enables secure VOIP calling from Android

InfoSecEdward Kiledjian

I wrote about Silent Circle in October and was excited to learn that they recently released an Android app and enabled Out of Circle calling. Silent Circle will enable secure voice, text, email and video chatting from any Silent Circle client to another (Android -> Android or Android -> iPhone).

The app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. Using their service is simple and straightforward. You download the app, create an account and then pay the $20 monthly service fee. As soon as this is done, you will be able to call Silent Circle to Silent Circle securely regardless of where in the world you are (over WIFI, 3G or 4G).  

They also added an "Out-Circle Access" which will enable Silent Circle users to call regular phone lines. You link is encrypted from the device until the Silent Circle boundary (which is a nice feature for people working in some questionable countries). This feature costs an additional $29 a month but includes unlimited calling to Canada, US and Puerto Rico.

Here is the full Press Release

 

Silent Circle Releases Silent Phone For Android And Out-Circle Access (via PR Newswire)

Private encryption service developed by PGP inventor Phil Zimmermann protects voice and video calls on both Android and iOS devices across cellular and Wi-Fi networks Download image WASHINGTON, Jan. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Silent Circle, a global private encrypted communications firm revolutionizing…

 

 

 

SilentCircle protects you from espionage or government monitoring

SecurityEdward Kiledjian

I not only work in Information Security, I love it. In the era of “everything digital”, nothing else is as important. Well imagine my excitement when I learned of a newly formed company, called SilentCircle, which was promising a very secure yet easy to use communication product.

The company

The company says that it was started by 2 former Nacy Seals and the world-renown creator of PGP, Phil Zimmermann. It wanted to create a military grade encryption product for securing phone calls (VOIP), text messages, emails and video. It’s goal was to create a secure product, with the ease of use of an iPhone app (all for $20 per subscriber per month).

Services include:

 

  • Encrypted voice
  • Encrypted text
  • Encrypted Video
  • Encrypted email
  • Ability to call anyone (non subscriber). Your session is encrypted until the SilentCircle servers

 

The need

Anyone with a public profile has a need for secure communication. Secure from whom? Secure from competitors, government agencies and foreign nations.

How

The design of the solution has been well thought out and all encryption is performed on the end device. Once a communication stream is completed, the keys used to encrypt that communication are securely deleted making future decoding more difficult. They store only minimal system logs (required to maintain the service) and these logs are stored in Canada and Switzerland (who have stricter privacy laws).

They offer a service called Burn Notice which automatically destroys the sent information (photo, message, email, etc) after a pre-determine timeframe.

Resistance

Current US wiretapping laws do not apply to VOIP but some officials are pushing to have these older laws amended to include VOIP. It is conceivable that future laws may make this type of service illegal or highly regulated but [for now] you can rest assured that your discussing with nana about her top secret apple pie recipe will stay confidential.

Verdict

Since I haven’t tested the service, I can’t vouch for how it will actually work but it looks great on paper. If you are concerned about eavesdropping or espionage, take a look at this new tool.