Hackers Build Android Encryption Apps For Egypt

Cellphones may be helping to connect and organize the pro-democracy protesters massing in the streets of Cairo and Alexandria. But they’re also offering a new method for authoritarians to track those protesters and monitor their communications.

So one company, Whisper Systems, is releasing a new way for Egyptians to thwart wiretaps on their smartphones. On Thursday, it launched an Egypt-specific version of two applications for Android devices: RedPhone, an encrypted voice-over-Internet calling app, and TextSecure, which encrypts users’ text messages. The Egyptian versions of the apps are available at Whispersys.com.

“When the protests started in Egypt, we stepped up our efforts to get it working there,” says a well-known hacker and spokesperson for Whisper who goes by the name Moxie Marlinspike. “Now we’re ready to release, and hopefully enable some pro-democracy advocates to communicate and coordinate without being surveilled.”