Today, even if you search, it is very difficult to find those people who do not communicate on the Internet using instant messengers. Statistics for the past year, for example, show that only WhatsApp is installed in every second person - this is more than hundreds of millions of devices around the world. This service alone helps send and receive more than 10 billion messages every day. But apart from the popular, but not the safest WhatsApp, there are many other tools for online communication. This is Viber, and Skype, and even ICQ. You can also count with a dozen more popular and convenient means of communication - some of them are built into social networks, such as the VKontakte messenger or Facebook.
Along with the popularity of online communication and the corresponding tools for this, many users have a question about the safety of correspondence. These worries are rather absurd, because the same Google knows a lot and even more about each person, but sometimes situations really arise when the conversation should be as private as possible without any witnesses.
Let's try to figure out whether it is possible to conduct virtual communication so that neither Big Brother nor the NSA read the dialogue, and also find out which one is a secure messenger.
Big brother is watching you…
Each message, whether it is text or voice, is stored locally on the devices from the sender and from the recipient. In addition, the same message, before it is delivered to the addressee, will go a long route through various networks and, in addition, will go through server equipment.
In the first case, the message history can be controlled a bit. In the second, it will not work to exert any influence on the secrecy of correspondence. Of course, you can try to solve the privacy problem with encryption, but the NSA has long learned to crack even the most technologically advanced ciphers. In addition, there may be vulnerabilities in encryption protocols that the security services are aware of.
Everything used for communication is unsafe
Here take, for example, the well-known Skype. Even 10 years ago it was a convenient, excellent and completely safe messenger. Even professionals from government agencies could not crack it. But after the company became the property of Microsoft, a lot has changed. Today, information security experts, unfortunately, do not give security guarantees for this protocol and system.
WhatsApp, through which about 10 billion messages pass every day, is also not at all safe, as the creators say. About his numerous vulnerabilities only in versions of the Android application every day they write in the relevant publications. Take, for example, recent studies - it states that the logs of correspondence, even if they are encrypted, are successfully hacked using a small and uncomplicated script. There is no trust in this service also because Facebook recently bought the company. Zuckerberg paid billions for technology, but not for personal user correspondence.
If someone thinks that he has a secure messenger, then experts say that this is not so. Employees of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation receive correspondence from Viber easier than printing SMS from mobile operators. Apple's iMessage is also not completely secure. So, anyone can get correspondence, and large companies are unlikely to want to argue with the state.
But, as you know from the school physics course, there is opposition to every action - the very fact that users have to work with weakly protected software for communication has led to the emergence of solutions that position themselves as a secure messenger.
The illusion of privacy
To begin with, we’ll give a list that includes all those services whose security does not correspond to the statements of the developers or does not guarantee that the message cannot be intercepted on the way to the recipient.In ordinary life, you can use these popular instant messengers, but they will no longer be suitable for guerrilla work.
So, more about each.
Confide
This is a unique product in its own way. The message is displayed on the smartphone screen in the form of rectangles, under which the text is hidden. To read, you need to drag your finger along this rectangle.
The program does not store history, therefore, even after gaining access to the device, reading something is very difficult. If the user wants to take a screenshot at the time of communication, then he will fall into the contact list, and the interlocutor will receive a message. The developers claim that it is still possible to read, but to save - no. True, if desired, the reading process can be shot on camera or take a photo.
It is seen here that only the illusion of security is created. This service is suitable for those who just want to play partisans. For all the others, the VKontakte messenger is suitable.
Wickr
This is far from an elegant, but rather ambitious instrument. He promises that there will be no trace of the message history on the device - everything is erased without the possibility of recovery from both a smartphone and servers. The data is reliably protected by the “military encryption algorithm”, the user can control the access time to messages, and the participants in the dialogue cannot copy the correspondence.
But the manufacturer did not think about how to shoot the process of correspondence on a camera, which only irons are not equipped with today.
Telegram Messenger
Speaking about the security of correspondence, we can not say about this service. This is probably the most famous and popular product of all protected. How could he end up in this category? After all, ISIS terrorists used it?
This is because no one has yet been able to really confirm that the protocol and system are really as secure as they are said. For hacking Telegram promise to pay 200 thousand dollars, and this convincingly speaks of reliability. However, hackers in this contest need to decrypt the message, and this proposal is similar to a test of tank armor with an ordinary pistol, although it would be more honest to use an anti-tank guided missile.
In other words, in order to crack the Telegram messenger in test mode, not enough money is given. Bloggers claim that the service is built on an extremely unreliable and inefficient algorithm that completely ignores all serious cryptography research. The creators of the messenger should invite a real auditor in this area.
There is another small detail. If you do not take into account the complex protocol that is laid down in this service, it will not withstand one very simple attack. When registering, the user will receive an SMS with an activation code, if you get access to this message, it will not be difficult to activate a copy of the application with this alien code. So an attacker can easily read all messages.
What this so-called safest messenger of all time is good is its high speed of work. Fast yes, but is it safe? Only conditionally.
Good security: Thremma
In this category, we tried to place those services, the level of protection of which can guarantee the difficult access of third parties to correspondence or message history.
And the first one we are talking about is Thremma. This is a secure messenger from Switzerland that has become popular in the wake of WhatsApp sales reports. Developers guarantee high security through encryption based on the Elliptic Curve Cryptography algorithm. There is also a secure mechanism for adding contacts.
Silent text
This is one of the few projects that serious security and cryptography specialists are working on. It uses its own protocol. Among the features is the deletion of the sent message. Another feature is good encryption. And if the Facebook messenger is no longer suitable for discussing any issues, then you can use this solution.
Text secure
Unlike all other products, this communication tool is free. The developers praised Snowden himself. This is the most simple messenger without unnecessary frills. All messages are encrypted here.
Signal
Which messenger is safer? This is probably Signal. Edward Snowden recommends him, and that means something. An end-to-end encryption system is used here, however, in addition to sending files and text messages, you can make voice calls. The program is tied to a phone number. This is a great choice for real paranoid.
"In contact with"
The company said that the development of a new messaging application has begun, in which a new encryption protocol will be implemented. So all those who do not like the Facebook messenger will soon be able to use the domestic tool. We hope that it can be attributed to the safe.
