Our “Wind” project is a Mozilla-NSF challenge finalist!
Posted on July 20, 2018
| n8fr8
For the last few years, we’ve been working on the Wind network concept, as a nearby, local, off-grid companion, or alternative, to the Web. This year, we decided to participate in the Wireless Innovation Challenge, sponsored by Mozilla and the National Science Foundation. Today, it was announced that we are a finalist in, as they put it, “A Science Fair with $1.6 Million in Prizes”.
Watch the video below to learn more about Wind, or jump right over to the Wind project page.
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Orbot v16: a whole new look, and easier to use!
Posted on January 5, 2018
| n8fr8
Orbot: Tor for Android has a new release (tag and changelog), with a major update to the user experience and interface. This is the 16th major release of Orbot, since it was launched in late 2009.
The main screen of the app now looks quite different, with all the major features and functions exposed for easy access. We have also added a new onboarding setup wizard for first time users, that assists with configuring connections to the Tor network for users in places where Tor itself is blocked.
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Haven: Building the Most Secure Baby Monitor Ever?
Posted on December 22, 2017
| n8fr8
About eight months ago, friends at the Freedom of the Press Foundation reached out to us, to see if we were interested in prototyping an idea they had been batting around. They knew that from projects like CameraV and ProofMode, that we knew how to tap into the sensors on smartphones to do interesting things. They also knew we could connect devices together using encrypted messaging and onion routing, through our work on ChatSecure and Tor (Orbot!
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No more “Root” features in Orbot… use Orfox & VPN instead!
Posted on October 27, 2017
| n8fr8
Since I first announced the available of Orbot: Tor for Android about 8 years ago (wow!), myself and others have been working on various methods in which to make the capabilities of Tor available through the operating system. This post is to announce that as of the next, imminent release, Orbot v15.5, we will no longer be supporting the Root-required “Transproxy” method. This is due to many reasons.
First, it turns out that allowing applications to get “root” access on your device seems like a good idea, it can also be seen as huge security hole.
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Combating “Fake News” With a Smartphone “Proof Mode”
Posted on February 24, 2017
| n8fr8
We have been working for many years with our partners at WITNESS, a leading human rights media training and advocacy organization, to figure out how best to turn smartphone cameras into tools of empowerment for activists. While it is often enough to use the visual pixels you capture to create awareness or pressure on an issue, sometimes you want those pixels to actually be treated as evidence. This means, you want people to trust what they see, to know it hasn’t been tampered with, and to believe that it came from the time, place and person you say it came from.
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OpenArchive: Free & Secure Mobile Media Sharing #DWebSummit
Posted on June 7, 2016
| n8fr8
I am excited to share another new “mini app” effort we have joined up with, as part of work we are doing to create simple, focused tools that solve a single issue. We also are aiming to builds apps that are 1 to 3MB in size, and work on Android phones back to version 2.3, in order to maximize accessibility for a global audience. OpenArchive is one of these efforts. It is a project led by Natalie Cadranel, who received a Knight Foundation prototype grant in 2014.
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Copperhead, Guardian Project and F-Droid Partner to Build Open, Verifiably Secure Mobile Ecosystem
Posted on March 28, 2016
| n8fr8
Three open-source projects haved joined together to announce a new partnership to create an open, verifiably secure mobile ecosystem of software, services and hardware. Led by the work of the Toronto-based CopperheadOS team on securing the core Android OS, Guardian Project and F-Droid have joined in to partner on envisioning and developing a full mobile ecosystem. The goal is to create a solution that can be verifiably trusted from the operating system, through the network and network services, all the way up to the app stores and apps themselves.
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ChatSecure for Android v14 is FINALLY here!
Posted on September 10, 2014
| n8fr8
I am so happy to announce that ChatSecure for Android v14 IS FINALLY HERE!
BUT This is our first “release candidate” of v14 for public use, and while we love it dearly, you may want to wait for 14.0.1 for us to work out any hiccups.
The update should be out on Google Play shortly, and FDroid in the next few days. Otherwise, you can always download the APK direct from us:
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ChatSecure 13.2: Important Beta!
Posted on August 5, 2014
| n8fr8
Today is the first public beta of ChatSecure v13.2, an important update of the user interface, networking code, and overall stability. We’ve spent the last six months tracking down crashes, memory leaks and performance issues, and have reached a stable, functional point which we want to share for public use. Reliability and simplicity our the goals, as we move towards v14 in the next few months.
This beta also features a new account setup wizard that we are eager for feedback on.
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Turn Your Device Into an App Store
Posted on November 18, 2013
| cpu
As we’ve touched upon in previous blog posts the Google Play model of application distribution has some disadvantages. Google does not make the Play store universally available, instead limiting availability to a subset of countries. Using the Play store to install apps necessitates both sharing personal information with Google and enabling Google to remotely remove apps from your device (colloquially referred to as having a ‘kill switch’). Using the Play store also requires a functional data connection (wifi or otherwise) to allow apps to be downloaded.
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ChatSecure v12 Provides Comprehensive Mobile Security and a Whole New Look
Posted on October 24, 2013
| n8fr8
ChatSecure v12 Provides Comprehensive Mobile Security and a Whole New Look The Guardian Project’s award-winning open-source app “Gibberbot” for Android, has been rebranded to “ChatSecure” for its version 12 release, unifying the branding with the iPhone and iPad apps, while offering major updates in security from the device through the network. Download on Google Play or Direct Download now. October 20, New York, NY – The Guardian Project, a New York-based open-source mobile security incubator, has launched version 12 of its well-regarded secure messaging app for Android, rebranding it to “ChatSecure” to unify branding with existing open-source iPhone and iPad apps.
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Gibberbot’s “ChatSecure” MakeOver: Almost Done!
Posted on September 20, 2013
| n8fr8
In a previous post with the mouthful of a title “Modernizing Expectations for the Nouveau Secure Mobile Messaging Movement”, I spoke about all of the necessary security features a modern mobile messaging app should have. These include encrypted local storage, end-to-end verifiable encryption over the network, certificate pinning for server connections and a variety of other features. I am VERY happy to report that the latest v12 beta release of the project formerly known as Gibberbot, now called ChatSecure, has all of the features described in that post implemented.
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Our Newest App: PixelKnot
Posted on July 18, 2013
| mark
Have you ever hidden in plain sight? Worn camouflage in the woods or an invisibility cloak in a narrow crooked alley? It’s really hard to do properly. We’re hoping that all changes with PixelKnot.
PixelKnot is an app for hiding secret messages in pictures. Sort of like invisible ink on the back of a painting, updated to the present. The ancient art known as steganography, now updated for the 21st century and requiring a more rigorous set of safety standards.
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GnuPG for Android progress: we have an command line app!
Posted on May 9, 2013
| Hans-Christoph Steiner
This alpha release of our command-line developer tool brings GnuPG to Android for the first time!
GNU Privacy Guard Command-Line (gpgcli) gives you command line access to the entire GnuPG suite of encryption software. GPG is GNU’s tool for end-to-end secure communication and encrypted data storage. This trusted protocol is the free software alternative to PGP. GnuPG 2.1 is the new modularized version of GnuPG that now supports OpenPGP and S/MIME.
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Gibberbot v11 is not just secure, its also simple, snappy and super fun!
Posted on March 8, 2013
| n8fr8
Gibberbot v11 is now final as of RC3 release: https://github.com/guardianproject/Gibberbot/tree/0.0.11-RC3. From here, the only changes to v11 we will be making will be critical bug fixes. We are now focused on our v12 release, which you can track here: https://dev.guardianproject.info/versions/39
_Please promote our new Gibberbot how-to interactive tutorial available here: https://guardianproject.info/howto/chatsecurely/_
If you have been tracking our efforts here for the last few years, you will know that Gibberbot, our secure instant messaging app, started out as a big old mess of an app called “ORChat” as and then “OTRChat” and then “Gibber” (or “Jibber”?
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IOCipher beta: easy encrypted file storage for your Android app
Posted on February 7, 2013
| Hans-Christoph Steiner
At long last, we are proud to announce the first beta release of IOCipher, an easy framework for providing virtual encrypted disks for Android apps.
does not require root or any special permissions at all the API is a drop-in replacement for the standard java.io.File API, so if you have ever worked with files in Java, you already know how to use IOCipher works easiest in an app that stores all files in IOCipher, but using standard java.
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Orbot v11 is out!
Posted on October 26, 2012
| n8fr8
After previous fits and starts, we’ve stabilized Orbot v11 now with the RC6 release. Our core testers and public users via the Google Play distribution are back to happy and stable states of being.
The latest version can be found:
1) In Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.torproject.android
2) In our F-Droid repo:
https://guardianproject.info/2012/03/15/our-new-f-droid-app-repository/
3) Our via direct APK here:
https://guardianproject.info/releases/Orbot-release-0.2.3.23-rc-1.0.11-RC6.apk
(.asc)
As always you can file bugs on trac.torproject.org or the guardian
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Our new F-Droid App Repository (out of date!)
Posted on March 15, 2012
| n8fr8
Update: this blog post has been changed to reference our new FDroid repository at https://guardianproject.info/fdroid. If you are still using the old one originally described here which has the URL https://guardianproject.info/repo, you should switch to the new repo as soon as possible!
For all of you out there looking for a safe way to find and download apps outside of the Play Store (aka Android Market) or random, sketchy third-party app stores and file sharing sites, then your wait is over:
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SQLCipher for Android v1 FINAL!
Posted on November 29, 2011
| n8fr8
Team GP along with the good folks at Zetetic, are happy to announce that we have reached FINAL on our first release (“v1” 0.0.6 build) of SQLCipher for Android. This means we consider this a production release, ready for shipping with your apps to provide for reliable, open-source, secure application data encryption.
If you need a refresher, here is what the cross-platform, open-source SQLCipher provides:
SQLCipher is an SQLite extension that provides transparent 256-bit AES encryption of database files.
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Announcing ObscuraCam v1 – Enhance Your Visual Privacy!
Posted on June 23, 2011
| Derek
We’re very happy to announce the beta release of ObscuraCam for Android. This is the first release from the SecureSmartCam project, a partnership with WITNESS, a leading human rights video advocacy and training organization. This is the result of an open-source development cycle, comprised of multiple sprints (and branches), that took place over the last five months. This “v1” release is just the first step towards the complete vision of the project.
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