RedPhone: Android secure phone calls - Bitelia

All information has revealed former intelligence analyst Edward Snowden on Internet spy programs of the NSA have put on the table a disturbing fact: the need to improve the privacy of our data. At the same time that have come to light these Internet spy cases have dribbled service names offering the possibility of implementing our own private cloud or deploy a secure email service, a path that also walks an interesting service available on Android called Red Phone that offers encrypted phone calls or what is the same: secure telephone calls.

application name has enough grace since translated into Spanish would Phone Red , such as the communications system providing a direct line between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Leaving aside its peculiar name, RedPhone is a service that offers VoIP calls using with the particularity that they are encrypted using SRTP specifically to encrypt the conversation and ZRTP to negotiate the private key that the two partners are exchanged to establish the secure channel.

be using a VoIP communication, the phone call require us to use a data connection , whether the 3G connection on our phone line or a Wi-Fi connection and, in a way , the operation is similar to WhatsApp or Line and provide both, yes, safety. Once we install RedPhone on your terminal, the application will connect to a central server that acts as a gateway and connects users (using as your phone number identifier) ??but, prior, you must wait for receipt of a SMS validation of our phone number (same as WhatsApp).

In a way we can remind Viber but is added as a differential value, a security layer that makes our conversation is completely private because, before the start of the talks, the two partners exchanged a password to ensure no one interfering or third listening.

And how can we ensure that this application is secure? The total security, actually, there is, in fact safety is subjective which is much more linked to the confidence we have in a service or application. In the case of RedPhone, ensuring that we provide secure and encrypted phone calls can be found in the entire source code is accessible on GitHub and thus, we can audit it whole (which is not can do with Skype, Viber and WhatsApp).

WhisperSystems, which is the company behind RedPhone also offers users call TextSecure that offers the ability to encrypt our text messages and send messages completely safe (another service to have into account) and its source code is also available on GitHub.