SecureCom Launches Open Source Mobile Encryption Service
Vancouver, BC / Sept 15, 2014 / New court documents reveal that the US government threatened to fine Yahoo (YHOO-NASDAQ) $250,000 a day if it refused to hand over user data to the National Security Agency (NSA).
According to the documents AOL (AOL-NYSE), Apple (APPL-NASDAQ), Google (GOOG-NASDAQ) and Microsoft (MSFT-NASDAQ) have all reluctantly participated in the NSA electronic surveillance program.
Big Brother is here. Counter-surveillance is now a billion dollar industry with start-ups like SecureCom Mobile (SCE-CNSX) launching encryption software that cannot be circumvented by mobile carriers or other parties, thereby ensuring end-to-end communication privacy.
“People in the technical community have been aware of widespread electronic surveillance on citizens for the last 15 years,” stated Sean Comeau SecureCom Chief Technology Officer in an exclusive interview with Financial Press, “But it took an NSA contractor like Edward Snowden with a huge pile of documents, to push it into the public consciousness.”
Comeau is a serial entrepreneur, a founding member of the Canadian security conference, CanSecWest – and he has a proven track record in innovative security technologies.
“I have friends in the communications industry who inform me that even before the digital era, when tapping a phone involved alligator clips on wires, more often than not electronic surveillance was carried out without any legal authority,” stated Comeau, “And here is the remarkable thing: as long as it is done professionally, there’s an unspoken rule that you don’t disconnect it. Now that everything is digital and completely automated, the cost of storage has fallen to a couple of cents per gigabyte, and compression technology has significantly improved, it's become practical to target everyone all the time”.
SecureCom Mobile develops consumer software and hardware encryption communications products for mobile phones, tablets, and computer-based platforms, employing strong cryptographic algorithms and protocols to protect communication from surveillance.
“The problem isn’t just with the NSA,” stated Comeau, “I’ve heard first hand stories of CSIS [Canada’s CIA] strong-arming network operators into installing surveillance. A couple of CSIS representatives just walk into a company and say, 'We want to monitor your customer's communications. If you help us your expenses will be covered. If you don’t co-operate you’re going to find yourself receiving unwanted and costly attention from other government agencies.' It sounded pretty unbelievable at the time, but now we know, and have proof, that situations like Room 641A are the rule rather than the exception.”
Peter Wilson, the CEO of SecureCom has raised more than $150 million for a variety of mining and technology companies. The Founder and President of Sterling Grant Capital – Wilson sees communication privacy as a sector with big opportunities.
“SecureCom is releasing a free version of our counter-surveillance technology to get as many people using the service as possible,” stated Wilson, “We anticipate generating revenue from the premium features such as the ability to send large attachments and enjoy voice calls with higher quality audio.”
SecureCom’s private messaging app allows the use of telephone numbers and e-mail addresses as usernames. The app permits 5 MB encrypted file attachments. Group messaging is also supported. Wilson believes the private messaging app is a viable and secure alternative to e-mail, which is inherently unsafe due to the legacy of its design.
“Right now we have free downloads available for the Android platform,” stated Wilson, “and we have fully tested software for Blackberry awaiting approval. We are also developing technology for IOS, Windows Mobile, Windows desktop and Mac OS X.
“As the ability to store the communication of large populations over a long time line gets cheaper and cheaper,” stated Comeau, “The question is not: ‘Could any of this information damage me now?’ The question is: ‘Could this information damage me – ever?’”
The Snowden documents have made it clear that that mainstream communication systems like email, Skype, phone, texting – are all extremely vulnerable to privacy violations.
“The NSA is building vast data centers to sort and store all the data they are collecting,” stated Comeau, “It’s scary. Do you know exactly what information you want to be public 20 years from now? Who's to say that data will never leak to the general public? After all, they couldn't even secure their super-secret plans to spy on us all.”
SecureCom releases its technology under an open source license to confirm the absence of “backdoors” or other methods to remotely control access to private information.
“We want users to be able to see the code, analyze it, download it and if they are motivated and technically capable, they can change it,” stated Comeau.
‘Open source” refers to a program that has source code available to the general public for use and modification. Open-source code is a collaborative effort where programmers share the improvements within the community.
The open source’ model is proven in this sector. Sourcefire (FIRE-NASDAQ) is an open source technology company that provides advanced threat protection from any device to any cloud. Last year, Cisco (CSCO-NASDAQ) purchased Sourcefire for $2.7 billion.
SecureCom is currently trading at .55 with a market cap of $16.6 million.
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Source: Financial Press