PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (PNN) - October 8, 2013 - Carnegie Mellon University researchers claim they have created a smart phone messaging app with security that not even the National Security Agency can break.
The app is called SafeSlinger, and is free on the iTunes store and Google play store for Android phones.
Researchers say the app uses a pass phrase that only the user and the other party can know.
They claim messages cannot be read by a cellular carrier, Internet-provider, employer, or anyone else.
The setup takes a few minutes, with the user answering security questions generated by the app that help it generate encryption and authorization credentials. The app then works just like a regular messaging app.
In a press release from CMU’s CyLab, programmer Michael W. Farb said, “The most important feature is that SafeSlinger provides secure messaging and file transfer without trusting the phone company or any device other than my own smart phone.”
Carnegie Mellon say because the messages are encrypted and require a password to access, many teens are finding the app appealing to protect messages from peers and parents.
The app was introduced at last week’s MobiCom 2013 Conference for Mobile Computing and Networking in Miami.
SafeSlinger’s easy-to-use interface brings cryptography and secure communication to non-expert users, but also achieves military-grade security against hackers,” CyLab scientist Tiffany Hyun-Jin Kim said via press release.
