NSA-resistant Android App 'Burns' Sensitive Messages 183
angry tapir writes "Phil Zimmermann's Silent Circle, which halted its secure mail service shortly after Lavabit, has released a messaging application for Android devices that encrypts and securely erases messages and files. The application, called Silent Text, lets users specify a time period for which the receiver can view a message before it is erased. It also keeps the keys used to encrypt and decrypt content on the user's device, which protects the company from law enforcement requests for the keys."
Seems similar to pieces of the Guardian Project.
Re:Very little utility here (Score:5, Informative)
Came here to say this. Without using shared secret encryption it either requires a (potentially coercible) central authority or is vulnerable to MITM attacks. And any kind of "time deletion" is only good for security on the receiver's device, not security of the message sent - the important thing to remember with computers is that if you can see it on your screen or hear it through your speakers, you can own it forever. No exceptions.
Re:Very little utility here (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not confident that the NSA hasn't already solved the discrete logarithm problem at the heart of that method.
http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/08/crytpo-experts-issue-a-call-to-arms-to-avert-the-cryptopocalypse/ [arstechnica.com]
Even if the security is perfect, I have a hard time understanding why people would need it. If you were discussing something that were merely private that you didn't want anyone to ever know you'd have to convince the other person to install the app as well. Hey Dave, I have a secret I would like to share with you, but only if you install this app... You have to be really paranoid, or have a really valuable secret to divulge. I just don't see that many legitimate uses.
If you integrated it into android, where every text between two android users did the same thing, that would be valuable. So things would be secure and private by default.