Introduction
A question is often asked “why do I need to secure my phone calls? I’ve got nothing to hide“. While thats probably true, the reality is more flipped on its head. Why are my calls being monitored, collected or stored, whether that is the content or the metadata.
Should people be subject to self censorship because of who may be listening or what might come out? There have been plenty of instances where private conversations became public causing embarrassment in some cases and distress in others. We have to look no further than the “Sun phone hacking scandal” in the UK to see how anybody’s calls can cause both personal distress and “topple a business”.
Aren't my calls already secure?
Like email, these days the majority of phone calls travel over the internet at some time meaning that they are “digitised” and transmitted, no different to an email. In fact some of the VoIP transportation is based and integrates techniques and protocols from email. (this is why its easy to email you your voice messages).
As the information is going over the internet it can now be intercepted and used by potential “bad actors”. Whether this is a private investigator doing checks for a spouse, a business looking at getting an edge on competitors, or a government mopping up all calls as described by Edward Snowden, there are plenty of reasons to “be secure in your person and papers”.
Why do I care?
There are a lot reasons to care, even though you have nothing to hide. Some that come to mind are simple data manipulation, retroactive context and / or nefarious actions.
We live in a digital world now with incredible capabilities available on the most personal of devices.
Bands record music direct to PC/Mac, high quality video is produced on iPhones, Tablets and Android devices and uploaded to the net at an amazing rate, photographers can go straight from camera to PC/Mac to “photoshop” images.
With the digitisation and the huge quantity of specialised tools available for everything from integrating special effects to manipulating audio, anything that is digital can be manipulated. This becomes all the more important when it relates to your calls. With simple editing, context and intent can be completely changed. Conversations that never happened can be created.
With information digitised, it is now far easier to store, search and retrieve information at an unprecedented rate. Information can be retrieved from the past at the whim of an agency or interested party.
What can I do about it?
There are a number of things you can do to protect yourself.
The first is to set yourself up with a secure phone system such as the CloudSecure software from CYC. Other products commonly used are Signal and Telegram.
Once you have the phone application you should register for an account here. You are able to pay in bitcoin to further protect your anonymity or purchase a voucher from our store and then use that at our fulfilment system.
We will provide you a phone number in your choice of cities and countries. Once you configure your account you will be able to make secure calls to other people on our network.
We recommend that you use a second phone as your secure phone and “tether” it to your existing phone when you wish to make calls. Further, we suggest that you set up a VPN on the phone to ensure that the connection to the internet is also obfuscated.
