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WhatsApp is updating its messaging app so that every text message and voice call will be encrypted for the company's one billion users. Yes, Whatsapp has finally implemented full end-to-end encryption , as promised a year ago. This means, from now every message, image or voice call you made will be secured by end-to-end encryption so that only you and the person you're communicating with can read the content of the message, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp. In other words, this also means that WhatsApp would not be able to comply with any court order that demands access to the content of any conversation happens over its service. Starting today, you will see a notification on your WhatsApp conversation screen as your messenger becomes end-to-end encrypted, as shown in the screenshot. "Message you send to this chat and calls are now secured with end-to-end encryption. Tap for more info."  "This is because your messages are secured with a lock,

The Tor Project has officially launched the first beta version of Tor Messenger, an open source and Encrypted instant messaging client that works on top of the Tor network. Tor Messenger is designed by keeping both simplicity and privacy in mind. The team claimed that their app encrypts the content of instant messages as well as makes it very difficult for snoopers and eavesdroppers to identify the user sending them. Tor Messenger integrates the " Off-the-Record " (OTR) to encrypt messages and then routes them over Tor network in the same manner as the Tor Browser does for the web. The app is built on Mozilla's instant messaging client Instantbird and works a lot like Adium, another popular instant messaging client. Here's How to Install Tor Messenger in your PC: Tor Messenger can be run on versions of Windows, Mac, or Linux PC. To do so, you simply have to follow these simple steps: Download Tor from here Drag the app to your Application

Imagine a world where the software that powers your favorite apps, secures your online transactions, and keeps your digital life could be outsmarted and taken over by a cleverly disguised piece of code. This isn't a plot from the latest cyber-thriller; it's actually been a reality for years now. How this will change – in a positive or negative direction – as artificial intelligence (AI) takes on a larger role in software development is one of the big uncertainties related to this brave new world. In an era where AI promises to revolutionize how we live and work, the conversation about its security implications cannot be sidelined. As we increasingly rely on AI for tasks ranging from mundane to mission-critical, the question is no longer just, "Can AI  boost cybersecurity ?" (sure!), but also "Can AI  be hacked? " (yes!), "Can one use AI  to hack? " (of course!), and "Will AI  produce secure software ?" (well…). This thought leadership article is about the latter. Cydrill  (a

In this post-Snowden era of mass surveillance, being out-of-reach from the spying eyes really doesn't mean they can not get you. So, if you are concerned about your data privacy and are actually searching for a peer-to-peer encrypted messaging service, then it's time to get one. " Otr.to " — an open-source peer-to-peer browser-based messaging application that offers secure communication by making use of "Off-the-Record" (OTR) Messaging , a cryptographic protocol for encrypting instant messaging applications. OTR (Off-the-Record) is one of the most secure cryptographic protocol that offers strong encryption for real time communications i.e. Chatting and Messaging services. Off-the-Record simply means that there is nothing on the record, so nobody can prove that two parties had an Internet chat conversation or said anything specific. ORT.to uses WebRTC to exchange messages via decentralized peer-to-peer communication , which means chat logs bet

An open source software group, Open Whisper Systems , has announced the release of Signal 2.0 — the second version of its free and open source messaging application for iPhone and iPad users. Signal  app is specifically designed to make secure and easy-to-use encrypted voice calling. But that's what the application was providing in its previous release introduced last July with  Signal 1.0 . Apple's iMessage also provides encrypted communication, but it was challenged by security researchers in 2013, revealing that  Apple controls the key infrastructure  and could, in turn, be compelled to change a key anytime they want, and read the content of your messages. But there was no way to send secure messages from an iPhone iMessage to an Android phone, or vice versa, unless you signed up for a monthly subscription plan and got the person you wanted to communicate with to sign up for it too. GAME CHANGER: SIGNAL 2.0 Signal 2.0 lets you send end-to-end encrypted messages to us

The makers of ultra secure BlackPhone titled by Silent Circle as, " world's first Smartphone which places privacy and control directly in the hands of its users ," have recently fixed a critical vulnerability in the instant messaging application that allows hackers to run malicious code on the handsets. BlackPhone was also hacked last year at the BlackHat security conference , but the interesting factor about the recent hack was that the attackers only needed to send just a message on a targeted phone number in order to compromise the device. The vulnerability was first discovered and disclosed by Mark Dowd , a principal security researcher at the Australia-based consultancy firm Azimuth Security. Dowd discovered the issue late in 2014, but waited to disclose it until Blackphone got their patches and fixes in place. The flaw actually resides in Silent Text application — the secure text messaging application bundled with the BlackPhone handsets, which is al

On one end, where governments of countries like U.K is criticizing end-to-end encryption and considering to ban the encrypted communication apps like Snapchat, CryptoCat, WhatsApp and Apple's iMessage. On the other hand, the Internet community has come up with a new and rather more secure encrypted communication app. Dubbed Peerio , an " encrypted productivity suite " designed to offer much more usable alternative to PGP email and file encryption, so that every individual user and business can encrypt everything from Instant Messages to online file storage. Peerio, released on Wednesday, is designed by 24-year-old Nadim Kobeissi – the creator of the end-to-end encrypted group messaging app Cryptocat and the encrypted file-sharing app MiniLock . " With Peerio everything you share or communicate with your team is secured with state-of-the-art encryption , and it's as easy as using Gmail. You don't need to learn to use it, " Kobeissi told Wired. &quo

Pretty good news for privacy-oriented people! BitTorrent unwraps its new instant messaging program that doesn't store your metadata and helps you with encrypted communication to keep your online conversations private, whether its voice or text communications. BitTorrent named its Online chat service as " Bleep ", a decentralised peer-to-peer voice and text communications platform that offers end-to-end encryption, therefore is completely safe from the prying eyes. In order to spread users' voice and text conversations, Bleep make use of the BitTorrent distributed network rather than a centralised server. Unlike Skype or Google Hangouts, Bleep comes with with a completely decentralized design, giving you extremely strong anonymity. WHY BLEEP? " We never see your messages or metadata, " said Jaehee Lee, the senior product manager for Bleep, in a blog post announcing the new app on Wednesday. " As far as we're concerned, anything you say is 'bleep'

ON HIGH-PRIORITY YAHOO! is finally rolling out encryption implementation over their site and services in order to protect users. Yahoo is rapidly becoming one of the most aggressive supporters of encryption, as in January this year Yahoo enabled the HTTPS connections by default, that automatically encrypts the connections between users and its email service. November last year, Yahoo revealed plans to encrypt all information that moves between its data centers and finally from 31st March Yahoo has taken another leap in user-data protection through the deployment of new encryption technologies. NSA TARGET LIST -  GMAIL, YAHOO, ... many more. Last year, It was revealed by  Edward Snowden  that under MUSCULAR program , the spy agency NSA was infiltrating the private data links between Google and Yahoo data centers. After finding themselves in the NSA's target list, Yahoo! and Google forced to think hard about the security and privacy of its users. Google had replied back

Earlier this year encrypted communications firm Silent Circle and Spanish Smartphone maker Geeksphone  announced a  privacy-focused  encrypted  S martphone  called ' Blackphone ' and today the company has revealed it as ' Mobile World Congress ' in Barcelona. The Blackphone titled as, " world's first Smartphone which places privacy and control directly in the hands of its users, " has a fully customized version  customized version of Android called PrivatOS   and pre-installed with lots of  privacy-enabled applications, is now available for pre-order for about $629 . Silent Circle was co-founded by a respected Cryptographer  Phil Zimmermann,  best known as the creator of  Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) , which is a widely used email encryption software. The Blackphone handsets main focus is keeping all of your data secure, and to stop government agencies snooping on your communications. Blackphone will come with a set of application developed by Silent Circle , incl

After the exposure of various surveillance programs, including PRISM, XKeyscore, MUSCULAR, DROPOUTJEEP in recent revelation, NSA has come up as the only ' Government that Actually Listen '. Another day and here comes another revelation - According to the The Guardian , National Security Agency (NSA) has collected almost 200 million text messages per day from across the globe and is using them to extract data including location, contact networks and even credit card details. The two names that come in the limelight are,  DISHFIRE  that collects " pretty much everything it can "and PREFER  that conducted automated analysis of the untargeted communications. The program was designed to collect the text messages automatically from various service providers, to pull the details of financial transactions, roaming charges, delayed flights, missed calls and scheduled alerts, address book contacts, credit cards, bank accounts and visited locations. Now If I am not wrong the word ' Untarge

A serious vulnerability in WhatsApp allows anyone who is able to eavesdrop on WhatsApp connection to decrypt users' messages. Whatsapp , the mobile application for instant messaging platform has become one of the main communication tools of the present day and its popularity makes it attractive for security researchers and hackers . This time it is debated in the protection of the messages exchanged through the application, thanks to a vulnerability in the crypto implementation they can be intercepted by an attacker. Thijs Alkemade is a computer science student at Utrecht University in The Netherlands who works on the open source Adium instant messaging project, during its research activity he disclosed a serious issue in the encryption used to secure WhatsApp messages. In the post titled " Piercing Through WhatsApp's Encryption " Alkemade remarked that Whatsapp has been plagued by numerous security issues recently, easily stolen passwords, unencr

Texas-based Encrypted Email Service ' Lavabit ' abruptly shut down for reasons linked to National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden .  The Feds want to Lavabit demanding access to Ed Snowden's email. Lavabit refused! Snowden was using the Lavabit service while holed-up in the Moscow airport. Lavabit was a dedicated email service that offered subscribers " the freedom of running your own email server without the hassle or expense ." Lavabit was launched in 2004 and most recently handled service for upwards of 60,000 individuals at a rate of around 200,000 emails a day. The owner of Lavabit announced  " I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people, or walk away from nearly 10 years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit, " letter posted on the Lavabit website . " This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without congressional action or a str

Polish Researchers have discovered a clever way to send secret messages during a phone call on Skype. We know that, by default skype calls use 256-bit advanced encryption, but researchers find that is not enough. So they find out this new way to communicate messages more secretly by using silence. Mazurczyk, Maciej Karaś and Krzysztof Szczypiorski analysed Skype data traffic during calls and discovered that there is a way in Skype silence, where rather than sending no data between spoken words, Skype sends 70-bit-long data packets instead of the 130-bit ones that carry speech. So by taking advantage of this they hijacks these silence packets and then inject encrypted message data into some of them. The Skype receiver on other end will always simply ignores the secret-message data, but it can be decoded back to receive that secret message. Team decide to present this at Steganography conference  by creating a POC tool called SkypeHide that will be able to hijacks some of the silenc