Air Force wants cryptographic security for iPhones, Android | Hacker News Reader

Air Force wants cryptographic security for iPhones, Android

networkworld.com

23 pointscoondoggie11 comments

It's about time we looked at GPL'ed implementation standards for Android call and text encryption, especially considering the trailing and security through obscurity approach by GSM networks.

Somehow I find it difficult to believe that would be included on any carrier-approved Android build, let alone enabled by default. OSS & client-side (i.e., no backdoors) encryption is the government's worst nightmare.

Maybe while they are at it, they can convince their friends that crypto backdoors are bad for everyone.

What's the subtext behind this comment? I don't see what specific point you're trying to make. I could guess, but I'd rather just hear it directly from you.

The recent buzz about NSA, or whichever three-letter agency it was, pushing for crypto backdoors. And by friends, I just mean other people in government/military/intelligence.

I don't really have a point here, just a thought that popped in my head.

The recent buzz about DoJ putting backdoors in OpenBSD's IPSEC stack was, even if you buy the totally unsubstantiated and bogus buzz, in order for DoJ to monitor their own networks; ie, even if you believe the crazy people spreading that FUD, there's no claim that there's a public-facing backdoor in OpenBSD.

It doesn't seem reasonable to me that we should spend months up in arms about the government backdooring projects every time someone 5 degrees of separation away from a major project makes a claim.

I didn't mean the OpenBSD alleged backdoors. I meant future backdoors that would be required by law. I remember reading a news article about that recently (might have been a few months ago).

This is a pretty neat company making encryption apps for android: http://www.whispersys.com/

This article totally reminded about whisper systems. I'm downloading their phone and text replacements now and can't wait to try them out.

(co-founded by Moxie Marlinspike of sslsniff and sslstrip fame)

http://www.cryptophone.de/

This German company has been selling commercial phones enhanced with their crypto software (for SMS and voice) for a while now.

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