PQChat messenger is 'world's most secure communication app'
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The privacy of instant messages has become a hot topic in recent months with the spotlight being shone on popular services like Facebook, Snapchat and WhatsApp.
So it's timely that SRD Wireless has announced the launch of PQChat - an app for iOS devices based on the company's own 'Never-The-Same' (NTS) encryption.
PQChat is essentially an instant messenger with a twist - its encryption system has never been broken, and the company even claims future quantum computers will not be able to break it.
SRD Wireless has unveiled their PQChat app, which they claim is the world's first 'quantum-proof' messenger. Users are in complete control of their messages and can apparently delete them remotely if necessary (left), while only messages can only be read by approved contacts (right)
Designed to make communications between people and businesses as safe, secure and private as possible, NTS protects data using the McEliece cryptosystem, the strongest currently known.
McEliece is an encryption algorithm developed in 1978 by mathematician Robert McEliece that has never been broken - even using techniques designed for the new era of quantum computing.
PQChat allows users to share and delete encrypted messages, voice, video and images as they desire, whilst the application itself holds no personal information on users.
As a result, SRD Wireless said users can have the utmost confidence that their private communications remain just that.
'The ongoing Snowden revelations have brought home just how easily accessible our personal information is to the NSA or other groups,' said Andersen Cheng, co-founder and CEO of SRD Wireless.
'Yet most people are still handing over information to data miners, spammers and criminals without understanding what they are doing.'
'People need to take back control of their data: even the smallest amount of personal information can compromise your privacy and security.
'Modern communication tools simply aren't built with this as a priority and so make compromises in order to allow communication.
'Our aim with PQChat is to place end-to-end security at the heart of the application.'
HOW PQCHAT SAYS THEY WILL KEEP YOUR PRIVACY INTACT
Minimal user information
Most communication tools require users to share a large amount of personal information.
PQChat only stores a one-way encrypted value of the user's phone number, which cannot be reconstructed, plus an encrypted user-supplied nickname and pseudo ID image.
This makes the user's identity impossible to determine.
User-defined passwords
PQChat allows users to set their own Master Password to sign up to the service, as well as a five-digit alphanumeric PIN.
PQChat does not even store the Master Password in the app, meaning that users have complete control over their own security.
Video and Voice authentication
To ensure a message recipient is who they claim to be, PQChat uses SRD's patented Man At The End (MATE) authentication.
By providing a video and audio authentication message, users can be certain of each others' identity.
Locker
To guarantee important information isn't lost, PQChat includes a secure locker where users can store information that they want to guarantee is kept safe and private.
Complete control over messages
As well as sending, users can remotely delete messages, whether manually or after a particular length of time. Users can also be sent an acknowledgement, to provide a guarantee that crucial messages have been seen and read.
User controlled
You can remote-delete your own messages and have full control over your own passwords, meaning nobody can share dodgy holiday snaps or drunk texts except you.
Data mining-proof
'A quite frankly terrifying amount of information is out there on you for anyone who wants to grab it; and apps like WhatsApp and Snapchat don't help by hoovering up your contact details and passwords to store,' said the design team.
'PQChat stores nothing on you - not even your phone number, messages or password - meaning it couldn't share the details around even if it wanted to.'
Secure
'Instead of making compromises and taking shortcuts to make chatting that little bit easier, PQChat has been designed the hard way to be totally secure from the ground up.
'Its technology has been thoroughly tested and is future-proofed against upcoming methods that can break security wide open.'
Current encryption tools are facing a major threat from the ongoing evolution of quantum computing, which will make breaking even highly sophisticated algorithms simple and immediate.
Most of the existing encryption standards have already been broken in theory, with only the IT horsepower needed to actually run these processes preventing widespread attacks.
Quantum computing provides all the horsepower such techniques need, meaning that these standards will be wide open.
PQChat is the first product to be based on SRD's own patented NTS encryption that they claim is invulnerable to quantum computing.
To avoid any possible attacker detecting patterns in a user's messages, NTS randomises messages' appearance.
Regardless of content, every time a user encrypts the same message, the output will be completely different, making messages incomprehensible to everyone except the intended recipient.
As a result, PQChat is claimed to be as future-proof as it's possible to be.
Within the app users can set messages to 'self-destruct' (left) so they delete themselves after a certain amount of time, while a variety of symbols (right) tell you the status of your message. Like other apps users can also embed videos, videos and voice
'Even if an application or service claims to be secure, the data it holds still represents a risk,' continued Cheng.
'For example, if an application stores personal details then a security breach can put all users at risk.
'Apart from having zero knowledge of any message contents, SRD Wireless vows not to obtain, store or share any personal details or password information from PQChat users: it is our belief that ultimately your security should be in your hands, not ours.
'Since SRD's business model is based around selling solutions to enterprises rather than data mining, there is no need for us to hold any of this information.
'Quite simply, if we cannot guarantee this trust between us and our users, then all of our claims about the security of PQChat itself are worthless.'
As well as consumers and workers using PQChat to send secure, private messages, SRD said they can provide custom applications to suit specific enterprise needs.
For example the legal, healthcare and financial services industries all have a need to support confidential, secure messaging across and between businesses.
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