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£2 app lets mobiles use secret code could be used by terrorists in bomb plots

Venture capitalist Harvey Boulter, boss of Dubai-based developers behind the app said: 'If you're a law enforcement guy, you might have concerns'

Police and anti-terrorist agencies are facing a formidable new enemy – a cheap smartphone app that encrypts texts and phone calls, making them virtually impossible to bug.

Seecrypt, which costs £2 a month, allows users to apply a secret code to their messages and calls which gives them military-level security.

The system also makes it  impossible for intelligence agencies to analyse which numbers terror suspects and criminals are calling, or when – a technique that is a mainstay of criminal investigation.

A senior UK official who has worked extensively in counter-terrorism and against organised crime said he feared that Seecrypt would ‘enable the bad guys to get ahead’.

Encrypted emails have been used by terrorists for years, he said, and sometimes proved impossible to crack.

‘We’re in a constant race against them and I suppose this is another issue we’re going to have to deal with,’ he said.

Porton Group, the Dubai-based investment fund behind the app, says it ‘will work with law enforcement agencies to ensure this product does not fall into the wrong hands’.

But because the firm that will actually run the app is registered in the Cayman Islands, neither UK nor other Western security agencies will have any legal right to obtain warrants to gain ‘real-time’ access to unencrypted calls.

Former head of Defence Intelligence Staff Sir Joseph French said the app is 'at the top of the security ladder'

Seecrypt is extraordinarily easy to use. Subscribers are given a special, secret number prefixed by the code +281, and can then call or text anyone else with a Seecrypt account.

The app uses the internet to transmit the call, using either a wi-fi connection or an ordinary mobile phone signal. Calls to far-flung parts of the world are therefore free.

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Seecrypt functions by generating a one-time cipher composed of two ‘layers’ of 2,048 digits every time subscribers contact each other.

Sources say it would take a super-computer at GCHQ – Britain’s communications intelligence agency – about six months to break a code with just one layer of encryption at this level.

Seecrypt allows users to make and receive secure voice calls and text messages. Anti-terrorist agencies say this is an obstacle they will have to overcome

Sir Joseph French, a former head of the Defence Intelligence Staff, is one of Seecrypt’s advisers. He said the app met the encryption standard required for official communications classified as ‘Secret’, and is ‘at the top of the security ladder’.

Seecrypt is the direct descendant of Cellcrypt, Porton Group’s military-grade app, which has been certified as virtually bug-proof by GCHQ. Cellcrypt is widely deployed by Coalition forces in Afghanistan as well as law enforcement and intelligence organisations around the world.

Porton’s chief executive is  Harvey Boulter, the businessman who first exposed the bizarre relationship between former Defence Secretary Liam Fox  and his bogus ‘special adviser’, Adam Werrity.

It was when the three men met in Dubai in 2011 to discuss the progress of Cellcrypt that Mr Werrity gave Mr Boulter a business card that falsely suggested he had a formal Ministry of Defence position.

In fact, although Mr Werrity had been best man at Dr Fox’s wedding and travelled the world at his side, with his bills paid by a network of political donors, he had neither security clearance nor any official post.

The ensuing scandal forced Dr Fox to resign. He is currently suing Mr Boulter for libel over comments he made in a television interview.

Mr Boulter said Seecrypt expected to have a million subscribers within its first three months, and already had the capacity to go to 25 million.

He maintained it was aimed at ‘anyone who wanted to restore their privacy’, adding that the US had estimated that industrial espionage conducted against private business by China alone was costing the American economy about £750 billion a year.

A senior UK counter-terrorist official said that terrorists have been using encrypted emails for years, some which are impossible to crack

Mr Boulter admitted: ‘If you’re a law enforcement guy, you might have concerns. For them, it’s not going to be entirely helpful.’

But he continued: ‘People’s privacy has been invaded more and more during the past decade. This will enable you to get some of it back.’

Also working on Seecrypt’s development is Tony Chapa, the former chief technology officer of the US Secret Service – the body responsible for every aspect of the President’s security.

He said: ‘Your mobile phone is the open window on your privacy. Of course Seecrypt could be exploited by villains, but we will do everything we can to stop it being misused.’





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