The Signal Noise: A Wake-Up Call for Secure Communications

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Purism

Beautiful, Secure, Privacy-Respecting Laptops, Tablets, PCs, and Phones

Latest posts by Purism (see all)

• The Signal Noise: A Wake-Up Call for Secure Communications - March 31, 2025
• The Importance of Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) - March 21, 2025
• PureOS Crimson Development Report: February 2025 - March 14, 2025

Signal is a popular and easy-to-use end-to-end encrypted commercially available mobile messaging application. It serves an important purpose and use case. That use case, however, is not for national security.

The recent Signal incident, where military plans were inadvertently exposed, serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities inherent in even the most trusted communication platforms. As a company deeply entrenched in the intersection of technology, security, privacy and serving secure environments and governments, we see this as more than just a lapse in operational security. It’s a call to action to rethink secure communications.

Convenience of mobile communication is very important, but the need to enforce security by retaining control is more important and certainly so for national security.

At Purism, we’ve long championed the idea that privacy and security must be baked into the very fabric of our technology. The Signal incident highlights the limitations of relying only on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products for critical government and military operations. While Signal is powerful and offers strong end-to-end encryption, it is still a consumer-grade commercially available application utilizing public networks not designed to meet the stringent security requirements of sensitive government communications.

Purism has an ideal combination that addresses both operational and technical security in a single ecosystem solution.

• A mobile device, the Liberty Phone
• A secure hardware supply chain, with made in USA electronics
• A secure software supply chain, with 100% auditable code
• A device with keys managed internally, not Google Android nor Apple iOS
• A Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) communications suite, utilizing the latest NIST standard
• A self-hosted solution, with no third party services needed
• A managed identities list, controlled in house by the IT team

When all the control is handled in-house and all communication is quantum-safe as well as on private networks, you have the strongest possible security story. This is the most convenient offering for the toughest of security needs, including national security.

Purism’s approach to secure communications goes even deeper, and here are a few highlights:

1. Hardware-Based Security: Purism’s devices, such as the Liberty Phone, Librem 5 phone, and Librem laptops, are built with hardware kill switches that physically disconnect the microphone, camera, and wireless communication modules. This ensures that no unauthorized access can occur, even if the software is compromised.
2. 100% Source Code Transparency: Unlike proprietary platforms, Purism’s PureOS operating system is fully free/libre and open source, allowing for complete transparency and auditability. This greatly reduces the risk of hidden backdoors or vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malicious actors.
3. Customizable Solutions: Purism’s technology can be tailored to meet specific government requirements, including secure boot processes, tamper detection, and integration with existing secure communication protocols. This flexibility makes it an ideal choice for high-stakes environments.
4. On Premise Communication: By leveraging decentralized communication protocols it allows the entire solution to be hosted on premise and completely controlled. Purism can eliminate the risks associated with centralized servers, which are often the target of cyberattacks. This ensures that sensitive information remains within the control of authorized parties.

A Broader Perspective

Purism’s ecosystem provides the user experience (UX) that government needs and would make it incredibly difficult or impossible to add somebody that lacks the proper clearance. Purism’s PQC comms does this because it’s a controlled environment, admins control who can join the system, it intentionally takes extra confirmation steps to add somebody new to the network, not a couple of errant taps.

The Signal news serves as a wake-up call for organizations to reevaluate their communication strategies. At Purism, we are committed to providing the tools and technologies needed to safeguard sensitive information, ensuring that incidents like this become a thing of the past and not possible in the future.

In a world where the stakes are higher than ever, we must prioritize security, privacy, and trust. The time to act is now.

Contact sales@puri.sm to schedule a meeting about deploying the complete PQC+ ecosystem.