Verizon’s encrypted calling app gives NSA access

Verizon’s new end-to-end encrypted calling app has a built-in security weakness to give government agencies like the National Security Agency access to secured phone calls.

End-to-end encryption generally means only the sender and receiver can access the content of any communication.

{mosads}But Verizon and Cellcrypt, the encryption company behind the app, both insisted to Bloomberg Businessweek that their government-friendly app will still keep out all other parties from snooping.

“It’s only creating a weakness for government agencies,” Cellcrypt Vice President for North America Seth Polansky told Businessweek. “Just because a government access option exists, it doesn’t mean other companies can access it.”

And Verizon will only honor a government request to decrypt the calls if there’s a legitimate law enforcement reason to do so, the company said.

Intelligence agencies and the private sector have been in a tense standoff over encryption since government leaker Edward Snowden revealed numerous government spy programs that collected cellphone and Internet data.

Under U.S. law, telephone carriers are only required to decrypt communications at the government’s request if their technology allows them to do so. Companies can design their encryption so even they cannot access the information. AT&T, for example, designed its encrypted business phone service this way, Businessweek reported.

Major phone manufacturers like Apple and Google have also introduced phones with default encryption, locking out government agencies from data on the phone, even when armed with a warrant.

The government is pushing back against this trend.

The FBI has called on Congress to update a 1994 law that requires phone companies to ensure federal officials can wiretap landline phones. Mobile devices should be included in that law, the bureau argues.

Privacy-centric lawmakers have tried to stop these efforts short. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) recently introduced a bill that would ban the government from requiring such access to mobile devices.

Verizon’s app works with Apple, Android and BlackBerry devices on any wireless carrier.

Tim Petsky, a senior product manager for Verizon Wireless, told Businessweek that he believes the new app will cater to government agencies. It gives agencies a way to convey information that is sensitive, but not classified, he said.

“You read about breaches in security almost every week in the press,” Petsky said. “Enterprise customers have been asking about ways to secure their communications and up until this point, we didn’t have a solution.”