Carnegie Mellon researchers unveil iOS and Android security app

Carnegie Mellon University CyLab researchers have developed a new smartphone app that leverages the growing proliferation of these devices to establish a secure basis for Internet communications.

SafeSlinger is used to securely exchange data among a group of users. You may select any fields from your personal contact, photo, and/or developer-designed keys for exchange. Each user will enter a pair of short numbers and confirm a 3-word list matches that displayed by other users’ phones communicating via SSL.

“With SafeSlinger, users can gain control over their exchanged information through end-to-end encryption, preventing intermediate servers or service providers from reading their messages or other sensitive stored data in their smartphones,” said Adrian Perrig, technical director of Carnegie Mellon CyLab and a professor of electrical and computer engineering at CMU.

“We increasingly lose control over our data. But SafeSlinger’s user-centric security design includes an advanced protocol, which incorporates elements of several cryptographic schemes and factors in the prevention of numerous types of attacks,” said Perrig.

SafeSlinger is available in the App Store and on Google play.