Since revelations that the NSA or other security agencies have been monitoring most communications, end-to-end encryption has been a hot buzzword in messaging circles. In their latest update, WhatsApp has announced that their messaging service has now implemented this encryption, becoming so secure that even they can’t read your messages, thanks to a partnership with Open Whisper Systems.
The WhatsApp update is now using Open Whisper Systems, TextSecure product to secure your messages from end-to-end. TextSecure has also published their source code, and to date has held up to scrutiny despite numerous public code audits. Open Whisper has also promised to continue building on their encryption methods, improving the Text Secure code, which should in turn end up in WhatsApp.
It seems that despite a lengthy implementation process, WhatsApp is commited to the encryption, with CTO of Open Whisper, Moxin Marlinspike telling TheVerge
It took six months to get the code ready for such a large deployment, beginning shortly after WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook. Most of our efforts have been focused on making our code easier to consume. I’ve been really impressed with the dedication and commitment WhatsApp has to the project.
With around 600million active users, WhatsApp is one of the largest messaging platforms around, incentive enough for any company to include higher levels of encryption. It remains to be seen whether this will lead to other platforms adopting end-to-end encryption on their services, but WhatsApp customers are now quite content.
Does the security of your messaging cause you concern at times, or are you happy to continue with lower levels of encryption?
