I can bet that 9 of 10 smartphone owners use some text messenger to chat with family and friends. You must be too… Have you heard about Signal messenger? If you take care seriously about your privacy I can bet you do heard or use it already! If not – maybe it’s a right time to start! I’m not going to prove again here that keeping your identity private in Internet must be a part of your life philosophy. All I want to remind now is: you are never know what information and when will be used against you.
So here is 7 reasons to switch to Signal.
1.It’s secure, really secure!
The Signal is developed with security in mind. It’s recommended by Edward Snowden as well as other Open Whisper Systems software.
Signal encrypts and decrypts all messages client-side (i.e. on the user’s phone before transmission and upon receipt), so they cannot be intercepted in transit. The messages are not stored anywhere on servers (the drawback is that you will not see your previous conversations on newly installed Signal on second device). SMS messages can also be stored encrypted on the phone.
Each text message is encrypted using perfect forward secrecy (using an ephemeral Curve25519 key), so that if any keys are compromised, the attacker will only have access to one small part of the conversation. The text body itself is encrypted using 256-bit AES in CTR mode, with Curve25519 Diffie-Hellman handshake/key protection, and SHA256 hash authentication.
Signal VoIP conversations are encrypted client-side as well, with all voice communications between the app and servers encrypted using TLS, while the contents of communications are encrypted using 128-bit AES-CBC, with SHA1 hash authentication.
You can find more details about these algorhythms in this article: VPN encryption terms explained (AES vs RSA vs SHA etc.)
This is not as strong as the encryption used by Signal for text messaging, probably due the fact that encrypting and decrypting data uses processing power, so stronger encryption would negatively impact the quality of calls. For most purposes this level of encryption should be more than sufficient, but if very high levels of privacy are required then you should probably stick to text messaging.
Signal includes a clever method for confirming the person you’re calling is who they say they are and not intercepting your call. Both callers see the same randomly generated two-word phrase. If you think you might be speaking to an imposter, simply demand the other caller say the security phrase.
2. It’s opensource
Anyone can inspect source code for backdoors or vulnerabilities. In 2014 German research team made deep inspection of Signal’s (TextSecure at that moment) code and it gave application “all-clear” mark. You can find details in their article, “How Secure is TextSecure?“
3. It’s free
There are no payments, no ads or upselling. The entire app is completely free.
4.Simple setup
Most messaging services, even secure ones require that you create an account first. But there is not with Signal: no passwords to remember and no accounts to be compromised. It sticks to your phone’s number and validates your account with a special text message. Once it is received you are ready to go!
5. Very fast and responsive
Even on old phones like my Samsung I9001 it’s very responsive and snappy. It’s not overloaded by garbage like many other messengers and always is 1 second away from you!
6. Nice interface.
Signal looks and feels good to use. The design is very clean with splashes of color and material design flourishes. Usually security apps lacks convenience and harmony in design but that’s not about Signal!
It’s well designed, looking good app!
7. Secure replacement for your default SMS app
When you use Signal to send a message to non-Signal users, it’s sent as a standard text message. If the recipient is a Signal user, it’s automatically encrypted. This neatly solves the fundamental problem with most secure messaging apps where you end up using one app for sending encrypted missives and another app for everything else. Signal covers all of your day-to-day and secure messaging needs. The incoming SMS are encrypted stored in Signal’s vault.
Instead of conclusion…
I also use it every day…
Take care of your privacy and keep your private life in secret!
Good luck!
