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MetroBuddy Secure SMS stops SMS eavesdropping

/ 4 May, 2012 / Mobile Phone / Permalink

Privacy Android SMS messages

MetroBuddy Secure SMS is a free app for the Android phone to send and receive secure SMS messages in between individuals or groups, the other end will need to have the app installed and be in your contact list with the country code number, even if you are both in the same country, to be able to interact together. After launching the app a secure connection in between phones is established you will see the message “Adding contact“, this involves exchanging up to 8 SMS messages and could take a few minutes depending on mobile phone carrier.

You will know communications are secure when you see a closed padlock next to your buddy’s name, from then on anyone eavesdropping on your messages will only be able to see random data, the user does not have to do anything else other than typing in a normal SMS message.

MetroBuddy Secure SMS Android

MetroBuddy Secure SMS Android

You can let other people known about this app using “Tell a friend” from the main menu this will send a download link to your contact, it is possible to create a group and send a single message to everyone at once. I couldn’t find any information in the developers website about the encryption technical details but the way the app works I would say that the messages are not encrypted themselves it looks as if a secure encrypted tunnel in between phones is created, similar to HTTPS (SSL) in your web browser, and anything that goes through it is secure.

Visit MetroBuddy Secure SMS in GooglePlay

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ArmorText Android app to encrypt SMS&MMS messages

/ 9 April, 2012 / Mobile Phone / Permalink

 Android SMS message encryption

ArmorText is a free Android app to secure text messages, it uses RSA1024 and AES256bit to encrypt your SMS&MMS messages, the receiver will need to have the same app installed to be able to decrypt the messages. ArmorText will connect to the Internet after launching it for the first time to retrieve your friends public key encryption. Security can easily be enabled tapping an ON/OFF lock button, a Smart Predict option will detect when the app believes you need to encrypt your text messages (based on the last texts sent) and automatically turn security on unless you decide otherwise, the app can stop message forwarding by the recipient too.

ArmorText is a pure text messaging solution, not a chat client, it only encrypts SMS and MMS messages with photos.

ArmorText Android SMS encryption

ArmorText Android SMS encryption

With smart phones increasingly used for mobile payments, email and online banking they have become a prized asset for thieves, ArmorText will protect your data even when it is not stored in your phone but the person you are communicating with, messages are encrypted before sending, stopping middle man eavesdroppers, like your network provider. Planned features for the future include controlling how many times a text message can be viewed, how long the message is available for and non-repudiation.

Visit ArmorText GooglePlay page

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Android phone encrypted IM chat with Gibberbot

/ 21 January, 2012 / Mobile Phone / Permalink

IM encryption Android

Gibberbot is a secure Instant Messenger app for Android phones, it works with any Jabber or XMPP compatible chat software (Facebook chat, GTalk, Ovi, Openfire, etc) this open source messenger developed by the Guardian Project uses end to end encryption with Off-the-Record messaging (OTR) standard, it will keep your service provider out of the equation making it impossible for an eavesdropper to read the messages.

Optionally Gibberbot can be used with Orbot (tor on Android app) to chat over the tor network, adding anonymity to an already private chat and circumventing censorship firewalls. Before signing into the chat you will be asked if you would like to save your password, you shouldn’t do this as anyone with access to your phone would be able to impersonate you.

Android secure IM Gibberbot

Android secure IM Gibberbot

Off-the-Record encryption needs both parties to be using it, the people you are chatting with must have Gibberbot installed or be using a desktop computer with an instant messenger that has the plugin installed, Pidgin (Windows&Linux) and Adium (Mac) can all use Off-the-Record (OTR).

You should swap digital fingerprints first to make sure he/she is the right person behind the keyboard, Gibberbot allows you create a scannable QR (Quick Response) code out of a digital fingerprint making it easy to exchange in person, after verifying fingerprints with your partner the chatbox will be shown green indicating that encryption and identity have all been authenticated, if you can not verify your partner’s identity the chatbox will be coloured orange indicating that encryption is working but identification failed, if encryption doesn’t work because the other end hasn’t got Gibberbot installed the chatbox will be shown in red colour and can still be used.

Note: This app is still in development and could contain some bugs.

Visit Gibberbot Google Play page

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Aircover mobile phone security for Android and iPhone

/ 10 January, 2012 / Mobile Phone / Permalink

Aircover mobile review

Aircover is a security and privacy app for Android with an iPhone version coming soon, what makes this app stand out from the crowd is that it pretends to be an all-round solution not needing anything else to secure your smartphone.

This app comes with an anti-virus offering real time protection against malware, GPS tracking to locate your loved ones with automatic notification when someone moves out of a pre-defined location, privacy protection allowing the user to control what apps can access what, online cloud backup with 2GB of expandable storage space to copy and restore personal data to a new device in case the mobile phone gets lost or stolen, a device found alarm that lets you track down a lost mobile phone from a PC and remotely wipe it to protect your personal data, and system optimization providing details on resource usage (CPU, battery,memory) able to kill processes, clean cache and other tasks that will speed up your device.

AirCover mobile phone security software

AirCover mobile phone security software

The battery meter tells you the approximate time you have left to complete a particular activity (Wifi, voice call, 3G Internet) before it cuts off averting getting stuck in the middle. Aircover is an excellent idea, instead of having five apps to do everything, you download a single app to address all of the problems that most security conscious people have, it will help you make your mobile phone theft proof.

It probably could be improved with a screen lock, and if you are picky, not knowing what anti-virus engine Aircover is using to find malware could be a bit concerning, we will have to trust it is as good as the likes of KasperSky and F-Secure, the only thing I would not be using this app for is the online backup, there is no mention at all of encryption for data backups, I can see someone hacking a server and getting access to your private data due to this, I am not  comfortable having unencrypted data stored online, the app is still in beta and I hope the developers add encryption to their online backups in future versions.

Visit AirCover mobile app homepage

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Free Android phone backup app Titanium backup

/ 18 December, 2011 / Mobile Phone / Permalink

Android backup free app

Titanium Android backup app, unlike the Google Backup feature that comes with all Android phones, can copy and restore your apps including user data within each app, general data and Market links to an external SD card, including protected and system apps, after setting it up Titanium backup will automatically copy your data as scheduled with zero clicks. Apps can be backed up individually or in group, to restore the data you can choose to only recover settings, app, data or everything at once.

This is a very powerful app, before you click on anything, make sure to read what it says, Titanium backup has access to your system files and it is easy to wreck something if you are not careful, if you are not sure refer to Titanium online Wiki. The whole backup process can take up to 15min depending on the amount of data and your Android phone processing power, once the backup has finished you can browse where everything is kept, inside the SD card in a folder named /TitaniumBackup/, you might want to copy that data online or to your desktop computer using a USB cable or Bluetooth.

Titanium Android backup app

Titanium Android backup app

This app is suitable for advanced/power users as it has lots of configuration options, for complex operations, like restoring data to your Android phone after it has been updated with a custom ROM, check out the online Titanium backup Wiki,. The paid Pro version of this app can encrypt your backups (using RSA&AES), copy apps without closing them, freeze an app without uninstalling it, convert system apps into user apps (or vice-versa), batch verify backup integrity, sync backups online with Dropbox, and much more.

Note: This app requires root which will invalidate the phone warranty, rooting is necessary to access system files.

Visit Titanium Backup Android Marketplace

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Top 5 Windows Mobile Phone security apps

/ 14 December, 2011 / Mobile Phone / Permalink

Windows Phone apps

SecureID: Password manager and data vault for your Windows phone, it encrypts all data using AES256, it can encrypt any kind of data, including audio recordings. The passwords can be classified into categories and searched, a password generator indicating password strength is included.

 7pass: Non official version of open source Keepass password manager for Windows mobile phones, it is compatible with Keepass desktop edition in your PC, it can securely store usernames and passwords as well as credit card details and notes, you will need a master password to access the encrypted database. It includes a password generator just like the original Keepass for PC.

Message Encryption: It can encrypt text messages using the encryption key of your choice, after encryption it will send the message to the person you choose, using the same window you can decrypt received messages, lean on configuration settings and features, but easy to use.

Password Vault: Windows Phone 7 app to securely store passwords, financial information and images, the application encrypts and groups data as Financial, Internet, Personal and Others. Instant search helps you to find out what you want when you need it, stored notes have a preview and can be edited, all you need to access your data is the master password.

 Secure Keys: Secure configurable password generator, it creates a hard to crack password with numbers, letters and special characters all based on the passphrase you entered, making it easy for you to remember your password yet hard for others to guess. The created password isn’t saved on the phone or sent over the Internet making it impossible for someone to know it other than looking at the screen on the phone.

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iPhone Tracker finds out your iPhone location history

/ 4 December, 2011 / Mobile Phone / Permalink

How to track an iPhone

While there are some commercial iPhone tracking app like Mobile Spy Live that can remotely find out where an iPhone is, read SMS messages, and view photos, these apps are not free and illegal to use without the iPhone owner’s knowledge, its main utility is to track down children and employees. iPhone Tracker is different from iPhone spyware apps, a free open source application taking advantage of the information that the iPhone is storing about your movements, doesn’t record anything itself, it simply shows iPhone hidden files found in backup files to find location information and maps it out.

iPhones have a database called consolidated.db, you can examine this data yourself looking inside a folder called /Users/<your user name>/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ a SQL database reader is needed to look at the contents. The database is sync with your desktop MAC computer if you have one and it is kept in clear text unencrypted containing  thousands of time-stamped latitude and longitude readings used by mobile phone towers, this data can also be extracted from the iPad.

iPhone tracker

iPhone tracker

Apple is aware that the iPhone tracks down user’s location and stores it on the phone, their argument is that the information is needed to solve GPS, mobile phone tower signal and Wi-Fi troubleshooting, those applications all need geo-coordinates to work properly. Mobile forensic suites such as Lantern, used by law enforcement and investigators exploit the iPhone Tracker utility being able to pinpoint where the iPhone has been all day. The data is not being collected by Apple, the main privacy danger would be a rogue app accessing it without authorisation.

Visit iPhone Tracker homepage

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Recover deleted data on Android phones with Undelete App

/ 21 November, 2011 / Mobile Phone / Permalink

Recover Android phone data

Undelete is a data recovery app for Android phones that needs root permission to operate, it lets you recover data erased from your internal Android phone memory and external SD cards, it only supports the FAT format, this is the most used format in smartphone memory cards. The app can recover any kind of data, images, audio, video, text, zip, etc. It only works if the erased data has not been overwritten yet, if you saved a new file on the empty space after erasing the data or securely wiped the file using a data shredding app,  the files won’t be recovered.

Android phone Undelete App

Android phone Undelete App

After installing this app you will be asked about the memory card where you want to recover data from, click on “Scan storage” and the app will start scanning the selected memory card (internal or external), the scan shows the file path, size and name, to recover the file simply tap on “Restore“, if you have many files on the recovery window you can use the search feature. Recovered files are placed on the directory they resided in before being erased.

Undelete is a good free alternative to Hexamob Recovery PRO, another Android phone undelete app, but I don’t know if Undelete will still be free once it comes out of beta stage (trial), if the app is successful there are plans to add support for EXT4 formatted cards, a filesystem often used in Linux. The developer claims to succesfully have tested this undelete app on Incredible S, Nexus S, Xoom, Transformer, Sensation, Galaxy S I/II, Galaxy Ace, Desire. On Tegra devices it only supports external SD memory cards.

Tip: If you are using an external SD memory card for data storage, you should be able to plug it into your computer and use standard Windows data recovery tools.

Note: This app is at the moment in beta, the last stage of test for a computer product prior to commercial release.

Visit Undelete Android Marketplace

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Track and wipe Android phone with Remote Phone Lock&Track app

/ 25 July, 2011 / Mobile Phone / Permalink

Free Android tracking app

Remote Phone Lock&Track is a very complete all round free Android security app that lets you track where your phone is at all times (using Wifi and GPS), this can be your own phone if it is lost or stolen or your partner or children’s phone to know where they are, in order to use the tracking capabilities you will need to install a second app, also free, called Phone Location Viewer.

Remote Phone Lock&Track app

Remote Phone Lock&Track app

After installing the Remote Lock&Track app the first thing you should do is to password protect it to make sure that nobody can change the settings, if anyone enters a password the app will show a fake SMS application hiding its tracking capabilities (paid for feature), be aware that tracking someone down without their knowledge is illegal nearly everywhere.

If your Android phone goes missing you can send it a predefined SMS command to either locate where the phone is, securely wipe Android internal memory, or just wipe the phone SD memory card data. You can limit the number of times someone attempts to guess the password to unlock the phone, once they have failed the password a determined number of times Android will wipe itself. The English interface of this app is functional but crowded with bulky orthographic mistakes.

Visit Remote Phone Lock&Track Android Market

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Secure free Android firewall Droidwall

/ 11 July, 2011 / Mobile Phone / Permalink

Best free Android firewall

This security app consists of a front end application implementing Linux IP tables (IP packet filtering at kernel level) to stop unauthorized outgoing Internet connections, unlike other so called “Android firewall” applications that only block SMS messages and calls, Droidwall really blocks app Internet access.

A benefit of blocking apps Internet access, besides security, is that you will not waste your bandwidth and battery with unknown call home data connections that some developers embed in their apps, Droidwall lets you turn off 3G and Wifi access, with 4G support, for any application, if you don’t trust an app installed in your smartphone disable its Internet access, you can log what app is accessing the Internet and review it later making sure there are no malicious hacking or unwanted Internet activities going on in your phone.

Droidwall can be password protected so that only the phone owner can change the settings, it is easily configurable, with a whitelist mode where nothing is allowed onto the Internet and any app desiring Internet connection will need an approval first, and a blacklist mode where Internet access is available for all apps and the user needs to select what applications to block.

Free Android firewall Droidwall

Free Android firewall Droidwall

Droidwall default firewall method is the whitelist mode which is safer, if you modify the settings make sure to tap on “Apply rules” after the changes or they will not take effect. This Android firewall app does not work in the background continuously consuming battery, once the rules have been saved the app gets out of the way and will not waste battery power.

Note: App requires a rooted device for installation.

Visit Droidwall at Marketplace

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