It’s been many years since SMS (Short Message Service) was designed as a simple text communication protocol for GSM networks, with no built-in security features. Its protocol, SS7, was first implemented in digital mobile networks in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The Signaling System No. 7 (SS7) used in telecom networks has known flaws, allowing attackers to intercept SMS messages or redirect them.
Attackers can trick carriers into transferring a victim’s phone number to a new SIM card, enabling them to receive SMS-based authentication codes or any message. They are stored temporarily on carrier servers, making them accessible to insiders or hackers who breach these systems.
In the past few years, some people have tried to solve this problem by developing a program that could encrypt messages. Although they may now be large companies that operate in other fields or independent individuals who have abandoned the project altogether, ultimately no suitable solution has been provided to this problem.
We must admit that implementing a secure protocol on a platform that has a strict limit on the volume of transmitted data and was not inherently created with this thought and foresight seems difficult.
Exchanging encryption keys for a secure communication in standard ways on this protocol was a complex and laborious task that we were able to do. On the other hand, the part of this process that was done by the user had to be completely facilitated. Despite all these difficulties, the work was successfully done and we can say with certainty that we have created a practical, easy and reliable solution for this.
For this purpose, we did not limit ourselves to just encrypting messages and designed a strong protocol with many features. In addition to standard security, it supports the ability to compress and transfer multiple extensions. We will try to briefly explain the technical features in other posts, but knowing that the protocol created not only does not increase the volume and cost of sending SMS messages, but also significantly reduces them, and this was the result of a lot of effort to provide a final solution.
In this protocol design, we have tried our best to transform SMS from its simple text format into a way to transmit modern content that may only be available in today’s Internet-based messengers. We have gone beyond that to add more creative content to it. And despite the limitations of the SMS platform, we are still developing these capabilities.
From a technical perspective, we think that this protocol provides the user with more security than networked messengers because the encryption keys are created completely offline and locally on their device and transmitted without using a suspicious and ambiguous service provider, and telecommunications service providers have no role in changing or infecting them and are only responsible for transporting them. For the peace of mind of users, we did not include an Internet connection and access permissions in the program. So, intentionally or unintentionally, the program cannot have any connection to the global Internet network or a server.
Essentially, we can consider the result of this project as a scientific achievement rather than a commercial product, and from a legal perspective, as an ethical phenomenon and protector of basic human rights.
This was the whole mindset that drove us forward on this difficult path and led to the birth of this brave and clever raven.