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Strong encryption for SMS
The SMSzipper business version allows to encrypt your SMS. A normal SMS is a clear text message travelling through the networks of telecommunication providers. While the clear text message can be read by any eavesdropper, the encrypted message cannot. Nobody but you and the receiver knowing the unique secret key for this message can read the message content. How does it work? SMSzipper uses AES in CBC mode to encrypt a message. You provide a secret key for encryption - this key is never stored on your mobile, so please do not forget it, because there is absolutely no way to recover any content without the key. SMSzipper uses the key and calculates all data necessary for encryption and feeds that into it's encryption and compression engines. The result is a SMS message that is readable with SMSzipper and your secret key only - and you may even write longer messages. How do I send encrypted SMS? The encrypted SMS can be used opening the special SMS menu. First of all, SMSzipper will ask you for a password - this is your secret key for this message - type in a nice letter / number / character combination and do not forget it, it is never stored on your phone! Go ahead and type your message as usual and send it choosing a contact from your address book. The recipient will need the secret key - please do not send is as clear text SMS as any security and privacy gained by encryption would be senseless if unauthorized people would get hands on the key - it may even the case that the recipient lost the phone. Call before or after sending the SMS - you may even agree about a general secret key to be used for secure communication between you two. If you call, the person can personally be identified. The encrypted SMS is listed in the inbox as usual - just open it and SMSzipper will ask for the secret key it needs for decryption of the message. If the key fits, the message is shown, otherwise and error is shown. Where is the use case? Given you travel and need to exchange some sensitive information via SMS. Do you trust the provider you are currently using? Do you know who is reading all the clear text SMS sent and received by foreign mobile users in a foreign country? People tend to loose a mobile phone from time to time. Well, that's not a catastrophe - you will get a new one. But what about that very very private, very very confidential, very very sensitive private and business related SMS? And of course the PIN was disabled for convience, right? If you just had used the SMSzipper encryption ... Some people like to protect their privacy in general - if you use encrypted email, used secure websites, use encrypted VoIP telephony - why not use encrypted SMS also? |