Wickr is an American

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

company based in New York City. The company is best known for its instant messenger application of the same name. The Wickr instant messaging apps allow users to exchange end-to-end encrypted and content-expiring messages, including photos, videos, and file attachments. The software is available for the

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

, Android, Mac,

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

, and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

operating systems. On June 25, 2021, Wickr was acquired by

Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments, on a metered pay-as-you-go basis. These cloud computing web services provide d ...

History

Wickr was founded in 2012 by a group of security experts and privacy advocates. Nico Sell served as the company's CEO until May 2015 when she became the co-chairman of Wickr and CEO of Wickr Foundation, the newly launched nonprofit whose seed funding was provided by the company. Mark Fields, who previously led CME's Strategic Investment Group, became the company's CEO. He served in that position until November 2016, when he was replaced by Joel Wallenstrom, co-founder of iSec Partners, becoming the company's CEO and President.

Apps

Since developing its first app, Wickr Me, the company has released Wickr Pro, Wickr RAM, and Wickr Enterprise. Wickr RAM was designed with the military in mind; the app stays secure even in "harshest environments". While Wickr Enterprise was created for companies with larger workforces to easily integrate into their organization's IT workflows. All communications on Wickr are encrypted locally on each device with a new key generated for each new message, meaning that no one except Wickr users has the keys to decipher their content. In addition to encrypting user data and conversations, Wickr strips metadata from all content transmitted through the network. Since its launch, Wickr has gone through regular security audits by prominent information security organizations, which verified Wickr's code, security, and policies. Wickr has also launched a

bug bounty program A bug bounty program is a deal offered by many websites, organizations and software developers by which individuals can receive recognition and compensation for reporting bugs, especially those pertaining to security exploits and vulnerabiliti ...

that offers a reward to hackers who can find a vulnerability in the app. On January 5, 2015, the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave Wickr a score of 5 out of 7 points on their "Secure Messaging Scorecard". It received points for having communications encrypted in transit, having communications encrypted with keys the provider didn't have access to (

end-to-end encryption End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a system of communication where only the communicating users can read the messages. In principle, it prevents potential eavesdroppers – including telecommunications service providers, telecom providers, Internet ...

), making it possible for users to independently verify their correspondent's identities, having past communications secure if the keys were stolen (

forward secrecy In cryptography, forward secrecy (FS), also known as perfect forward secrecy (PFS), is a feature of specific key agreement protocols that gives assurances that session keys will not be compromised even if long-term secrets used in the session key ...

), and having completed a recent independent

security audit An information security audit is an audit on the level of information security in an organization. It is an independent review and examination of system records, activities and related documents. These audits are intended to improve the level of in ...

. It was missing points because its

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the w ...

was not open to independent review ( open source), and because its security design was not well-documented. In 2015, Wickr published a

white paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. A white pape ...

outlining the encryption protocol that they use for end-to-end encryption. In 2015, the Electronic Frontier Foundation announced that Wickr, among only nine companies, earned stars in every applicable category for its effort to protect user privacy: "We commend Wickr for its strong stance regarding user rights, transparency, and privacy." In December 2016, Wickr announced Wickr Professional, a new business collaboration and communication product designed to couple the functionality of tools like Slack with end-to-end encryption and ephemerality. In February 2017, Wickr opened one of its crypto protocols for public review on

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continu ...

and published a paper “The Wickr Messaging Protocol” as an aid to those who wish to review the source code. At the time of its publication, the crypto protocol was only used in the company's enterprise product, Wickr Professional. The company said that its consumer product, Wickr Messenger, still uses another protocol and that they intend to replace this protocol with the one that they published. In early 2020, Wickr RAM was included in a review by the

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

of secure communication & collaboration platforms. Wickr RAM was the only app that was found to meet every single criterion that was assessed. According to ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', Wickr markets itself to government agencies. Government transparency advocates note that Maryland Governor Larry Hogan's use of Wickr destroys government records before any determination of whether they should be public can be made, under the Freedom of Information Act and state law. Wickr announced that it would be focusing on its business and public sector versions, AWS Wickr and Wickr Enterprise, instead.

Wickr Me

Initially unveiled on

and later on Android, the Wickr Me app allows users to set an expiration time for their encrypted communications. In December 2014, Wickr released a desktop version of its secure communications platform. The release of the desktop Wickr app coincided with introducing the ability to sync messages across multiple devices, including mobile phones, tablets, and computers. On 18 November 2022, Wickr announced that it will be ending the free Wickr Me version of its app by the end of 2023. Wickr Me will not be accepting new user registrations after 31 December 2022, and will stop the Wickr Me services completely per 31 December 2023.

Funding

In March 2014, Wickr announced its

Series A funding A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

round of $9 million led by

Gilman Louie Gilman Louie (born 1960) is an American technology venture capitalist who got his start as a video game designer and then co-founded and ran the CIA venture capital fund In-Q-Tel. With his company Nexa Corporation he designed and developed multipl ...

of Alsop Louie Partners. The series also included investments from

Juniper Networks Juniper Networks, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The company develops and markets networking products, including routers, switches, network management software, network security product ...

and the Knight Foundation. In June 2014, Wickr announced its Series B funding round of $30 million led by Breyer Capital, including CME Group and

Wargaming A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...

. On 12 October 2021, a

Vice Motherboard ''Vice'' (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. Founded in 1994 in Montreal as an alternative punk magazine, the founders later launched the youth media company Vice Media, ...

article revealed that the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

(CIA) had invested $1.6 million into Wickr via the CIA's shell company

In-Q-Tel In-Q-Tel (IQT), formerly Peleus and In-Q-It, is an American not-for-profit venture capital firm based in Arlington, Virginia. It invests in high-tech companies to keep the Central Intelligence Agency, and other intelligence agencies, equipped with ...

. Gilman Louie is the former CEO of In-Q-Tel, and other investors, including Richard Clarke and Michael Wertheimer, also have close ties to the U.S. intelligence and national security communities. It is also known that

Erik Prince Erik Dean Prince (born June 6, 1969) is an American businessman, former United States Navy SEALs, U.S. Navy SEAL Officer (armed forces), officer, and the founder of the private military company Blackwater USA, Blackwater. He served as Blackwat ...

, the founder of the controversial private security firm Blackwater, is one of the principal investors.

Wickr Foundation

The Wickr Foundation is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

founded by Wickr founder Nico Sell. The foundation operates a social-impact venture fund with a global mission to advance the Private Web and transform how society uses the Internet. In addition to educating the public on privacy and information security, Wickr Foundation is focused on incubating and investing in ideas that revolutionize user control and empower data ownership. The foundation is dedicated to providing information security and privacy training to

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

activists, policy-makers, children, and journalists, and leads several initiatives to raise global awareness of privacy and encourage the development of security-enhancing technologies.

References

External links

* {{Instant messaging 2021 mergers and acquisitions Amazon (company) acquisitions Companies based in San Francisco Companies established in 2012 Instant messaging clients Privately held companies based in California