Whisper Systems

Last updated
Whisper Systems
Industry Encryption software, Mobile software, Mobile security
Founded2010
Founders
DefunctNovember 28, 2011 (2011-11-28)
FateAcquired by Twitter
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
,
U.S.
Website www.whispersys.com
See Archived 17 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine

Whisper Systems was an American enterprise mobile security company that was co-founded by security researcher Moxie Marlinspike and roboticist Stuart Anderson in 2010. [1] The company was acquired by Twitter in November 2011. [2] [3] [4] Some of the company's software products were released under open-source licenses after the acquisition. [5] An independent group called Open Whisper Systems later picked up the development of this open-source software, [6] which led to the creation of the Signal Technology Foundation. [7] [8]

Contents

History

Security researcher Moxie Marlinspike and roboticist Stuart Anderson co-founded Whisper Systems in 2010. [9] [1] The company produced proprietary enterprise mobile security software. Among these were an encrypted texting program called TextSecure and an encrypted voice calling app called RedPhone. [10] They also developed a firewall and tools for encrypting other forms of data. [1] [11]

On November 28, 2011, Whisper Systems announced that it had been acquired by Twitter. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by either company. [2] The acquisition was done "primarily so that Mr. Marlinspike could help the then-startup improve its security". [12] Shortly after the acquisition, Whisper Systems' RedPhone service was made unavailable. [13] Some criticized the removal, arguing that the software was "specifically targeted [to help] people under repressive regimes" and that it left people like the Egyptians in "a dangerous position" during the events of the 2011 Egyptian revolution. [14]

Twitter released TextSecure as free and open-source software under the GPLv3 license in December 2011. [15] [16] [1] [5] RedPhone was also released under the same license in July 2012. [17]

Marlinspike later left Twitter and founded Open Whisper Systems as a collaborative Open Source project for the continued development of TextSecure and RedPhone. [18] [6] Open Whisper Systems consisted of a large community of volunteer Open Source contributors, as well as a small team of dedicated grant-funded developers. In November 2015, Open Whisper Systems merged TextSecure with RedPhone and renamed it as Signal. [19] In 2018, Signal Messenger was incorporated as an LLC by Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton and then rolled under the independent non-profit Signal Technology Foundation. Today, the Signal app is developed by Signal Messenger LLC, which is funded by the Signal Foundation. [7] [8] The foundation has stated publicly that they are not tied to any major technology companies and "can never be acquired by one either." [20]

Products

Whisper Systems' products were all made for Android and included: [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a private communication system in which only communicating users can participate. As such, no one, including the communication system provider, telecom providers, Internet providers or malicious actors, can access the cryptographic keys needed to converse.

ZRTP is a cryptographic key-agreement protocol to negotiate the keys for encryption between two end points in a Voice over IP (VoIP) phone telephony call based on the Real-time Transport Protocol. It uses Diffie–Hellman key exchange and the Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) for encryption. ZRTP was developed by Phil Zimmermann, with help from Bryce Wilcox-O'Hearn, Colin Plumb, Jon Callas and Alan Johnston and was submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) by Zimmermann, Callas and Johnston on March 5, 2006 and published on April 11, 2011 as RFC 6189.

This is a comparison of voice over IP (VoIP) software used to conduct telephone-like voice conversations across Internet Protocol (IP) based networks. For residential markets, voice over IP phone service is often cheaper than traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) service and can remove geographic restrictions to telephone numbers, e.g., have a PSTN phone number in a New York area code ring in Tokyo.

eBuddy Instant messaging software

eBuddy is a privately held Dutch software company that offers instant messaging services. As of 2011, eBuddy reported 100 million downloads. The company's flagship service is XMS, a proprietary cross-platform instant messaging service. After some changes of ownership, the company is now again owned by its original founders, Onno Bakker and Jan-Joost Rueb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moxie Marlinspike</span> American entrepreneur

Moxie Marlinspike is an American entrepreneur, cryptographer, and computer security researcher. Marlinspike is the creator of Signal, co-founder of the Signal Technology Foundation, and served as the first CEO of Signal Messenger LLC. He is also a co-author of the Signal Protocol encryption used by Signal, WhatsApp, Google Messages, Facebook Messenger, and Skype.

Silent Circle is an encrypted communications firm based in Washington DC. Silent Circle provides multi-platform secure communication services for mobile devices and desktop. Launched October 16, 2012, the company operates under a subscription business model. The encryption part of the software used is free software/open source and peer-reviewed. For the remaining parts of Silent Phone and Silent Text, the source code is available on GitHub, but under proprietary software licenses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guardian Project (software)</span>

The Guardian Project is a global collective of software developers, designers, advocates, activists, and trainers who develop open-source mobile security software and operating system enhancements. They also create customized mobile devices to help individuals communicate more freely and protect themselves from intrusion and monitoring. The effort specifically focuses on users who live or work in high-risk situations and who often face constant surveillance and intrusion attempts into their mobile devices and communication streams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">F-Droid</span> Repository for free and open source Android apps

F-Droid is an open-source app store and software repository for Android, serving a similar function to the Google Play store. The main repository, hosted by the project, contains only free and open source apps. Applications can be browsed, downloaded and installed from the F-Droid website or client app without the need to register for an account. "Anti-features" such as advertising, user tracking, or dependence on non-free software are flagged in app descriptions.

Wickr is an American software company based in New York City, known for its instant messenger application of the same name. The Wickr instant messaging apps allow users to exchange end-to-end encrypted and content-expiring messages, and are designed for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems. Wickr was acquired by Amazon Web Services (AWS) mid-2021 and shut down the free version of the app in December 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ChatSecure</span> Messaging application

ChatSecure is a messaging application for iOS which allows OTR and OMEMO encryption for the XMPP protocol. ChatSecure is free and open source software available under the GPL-3.0-or-later license.

TextSecure was an encrypted messaging application for Android that was developed from 2010 to 2015. It was a predecessor to Signal and the first application to use the Signal Protocol, which has since been implemented into WhatsApp and other applications. TextSecure used end-to-end encryption to secure the transmission of text messages, group messages, attachments and media messages to other TextSecure users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open Whisper Systems</span> Open source software organization

Open Whisper Systems was a software development group that was founded by Moxie Marlinspike in 2013. The group picked up the open source development of TextSecure and RedPhone, and was later responsible for starting the development of the Signal Protocol and the Signal messaging app. In 2018, Signal Messenger was incorporated as an LLC by Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton and then rolled under the independent 501c3 non-profit Signal Technology Foundation. Today, the Signal app is developed by Signal Messenger LLC, which is funded by the Signal Technology Foundation.

Threema is a paid cross-platform encrypted instant messaging app developed by Threema GmbH in Switzerland and launched in 2012. The service operates on a decentralized architecture and offers end-to-end encryption. Users can make voice and video calls, send photos, files, and voice notes, share locations, and make groups. Unlike many other popular secure messaging apps, Threema does not require phone numbers or email address for registration, only a one-time purchase that can be paid via an app store or anonymously with Bitcoin or cash.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Signal (messaging app)</span> Privacy-focused encrypted messaging app

Signal is an encrypted messaging service for instant messaging, voice, and video calls. The instant messaging function includes sending text, voice notes, images, videos, and other files. Communication may be one-to-one between users or may involve group messaging.

In cryptography, the Double Ratchet Algorithm is a key management algorithm that was developed by Trevor Perrin and Moxie Marlinspike in 2013. It can be used as part of a cryptographic protocol to provide end-to-end encryption for instant messaging. After an initial key exchange it manages the ongoing renewal and maintenance of short-lived session keys. It combines a cryptographic so-called "ratchet" based on the Diffie–Hellman key exchange (DH) and a ratchet based on a key derivation function (KDF), such as a hash function, and is therefore called a double ratchet.

The Signal Protocol is a non-federated cryptographic protocol that provides end-to-end encryption for voice and instant messaging conversations. The protocol was developed by Open Whisper Systems in 2013 and was first introduced in the open-source TextSecure app, which later became Signal. Several closed-source applications have implemented the protocol, such as WhatsApp, which is said to encrypt the conversations of "more than a billion people worldwide" or Google who provides end-to-end encryption by default to all RCS-based conversations between users of their Google Messages app for one-to-one conversations. Facebook Messenger also say they offer the protocol for optional Secret Conversations, as does Skype for its Private Conversations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Signal Foundation</span> American non-profit organization

The Signal Technology Foundation, commonly known as the Signal Foundation, is an American non-profit organization founded in 2018 by Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton. Its mission is to "protect free expression and enable secure global communication through open source privacy technology." Its subsidiary, Signal Messenger LLC, is responsible for the development of the Signal messaging app and the Signal Protocol.

MobileCoin is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency developed by MobileCoin Inc., which was founded in 2017 by Josh Goldbard and Shane Glynn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cellebrite UFED</span> Software to extract data from mobile devices

The UFED is a product series of the Israeli company Cellebrite, which is used for the extraction and analysis of data from mobile devices by law enforcement agencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conversations (software)</span> Free software instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol

Conversations is a free software, instant messaging client application software for Android. It is largely based on recognized open standards such as the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) and Transport Layer Security (TLS).

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Garling, Caleb (2011-12-20). "Twitter Open Sources Its Android Moxie | Wired Enterprise". Wired.com. Retrieved 2011-12-21.
  2. 1 2 Tom Cheredar (November 28, 2011). "Twitter acquires Android security startup Whisper Systems". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2011-12-21.
  3. ↑ Brad McCarty (28 November 2011). "Twitter acquires mobile data security gurus Whisper Systems" . Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  4. ↑ "Saudi telco asks researcher Moxie Marlinspike to help it spy on residents". SC Media US. 2013-05-13. Retrieved 2018-06-18.
  5. 1 2 Pete Pachal (2011-12-20). "Twitter Takes TextSecure, Texting App for Dissidents, Open Source". Mashable. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  6. 1 2 "A New Home". Open Whisper Systems. 2013-01-21. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  7. 1 2 Marlinspike, Moxie; Acton, Brian (21 February 2018). "Signal Foundation". Signal.org. Archived from the original on 16 February 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
  8. 1 2 "Signal Technology Foundation". Nonprofit Explorer. Pro Publica Inc. 9 May 2013. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  9. ↑ "Company Overview of Whisper Systems Inc". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on March 4, 2014. Retrieved 2014-03-04.
  10. ↑ Andy Greenberg (2010-05-25). "Android App Aims to Allow Wiretap-Proof Cell Phone Calls". Forbes. Retrieved 2014-02-28.
  11. ↑ "Secure your Android mobile – Use Whisper Systems free security app Whispercore « Technology updates by Techburrp". Techburrp.com. Retrieved 2011-12-21.
  12. ↑ Yadron, Danny (9 July 2015). "Moxie Marlinspike: The Coder Who Encrypted Your Texts". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  13. ↑ Andy Greenberg (2011-11-28). "Twitter Acquires Moxie Marlinspike's Encryption Startup Whisper Systems". Forbes. Retrieved 2011-12-21.
  14. ↑ Garling, Caleb (2011-11-28). "Twitter Buys Some Middle East Moxie | Wired Enterprise". Wired.com. Retrieved 2011-12-21.
  15. ↑ Chris Aniszczyk (20 December 2011). "The Whispers Are True". The Twitter Developer Blog. Twitter. Archived from the original on 24 October 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  16. ↑ "TextSecure is now Open Source!". Whisper Systems. 20 December 2011. Archived from the original on 6 January 2012. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  17. ↑ "RedPhone is now Open Source!". Whisper Systems. 18 July 2012. Archived from the original on 31 July 2012. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  18. ↑ Andy Greenberg (29 July 2014). "Your iPhone Can Finally Make Free, Encrypted Calls". Wired. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  19. ↑ Marlinspike, Moxie (2 November 2015). "Just Signal". Open Whisper Systems. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  20. ↑ Signal Technology Foundation [@signalapp] (January 8, 2021). "We are a 501c3 nonprofit. We're not tied to any major tech companies, and we can never be acquired by one either. Development is supported by grants and donations from Signal users" (Tweet). Retrieved 24 January 2021– via Twitter.
  21. ↑ "Mobile Security For Android". Whisper Systems. Archived from the original on 4 January 2012. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  22. ↑ "Encrypted backups for Android". Whisper Systems. Archived from the original on 29 December 2011. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  23. ↑ "Network security for Android". Whisper Systems. Archived from the original on 15 January 2012. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.