Cellcrypt, the company that provides encrypted mobile phone voice calling we talked about in the past, is going beyond voice, adding a new secure messaging feature for users of Cellcrypt Mobile for BlackBerry. The feature brings government-certified end-to-end encryption for messaging, countering interception vulnerabilities of standard SMS and instant messaging. The trick is in using “immediate delivery and delete” instead of a “store and forward” design, making exchange of messages less vulnerable to compromise.
Encrypted messaging is envisioned to be used at times when cellular network quality is so poor that sustaining an encrypted voice call is not possible. Moreover, it can be used for simultaneous message exchange with multiple parties, to exchange information without disturbing meetings, to remain unidentified in covert operations, and to save time when exchanging structured data such as names, addresses, logistical information and reference numbers.
Finally to make things even more secure, delivery of encrypted messages occurs only when both parties are directly connected so the message is not stored, unless deliberately saved by the recipient to read later. Additionally, the sender can specifically set a message-retry interval, which limits the time a message stays in outbox, if the recipient is unavailable to receive it immediately.
Cellcrypt’s encrypted messaging is an additional feature of the core Cellcrypt Mobile product. It is available now in Cellcrypt Mobile for BlackBerry version 6 and later.