But what about that more common problem, the man-on-the-other-end? Even trusted recipients of a message, photo or video can leak secrets, carelessly forward messages, let them fall into the wrong hands, or even betray the sender and dig up evidence years later–a lesson folks like Anthony Weiner and Adrian Lamo have illustrated all too clearly. Wickr, a free application that launched in the iPhone app store Wednesday, aims to encrypt text, picture and video messages to prevent their interception by men-in-the-middle. But then, as the app’s name implies, those messages also delete themselves after just minutes or even seconds like a burning wick, leaving no trace behind even for forensic investigators. “We want to let people send messages that are easy, secure, and leave no trace,” says Robert Statica, one of the company’s founders and director of Center for Information Protection at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. (more)
