Twitter buys Android security company Whisper Systems

Whisper Systems could provide greater security for the Twitter system, boost Android integration

The Twitter machine has added to its growing tools box with the announcement Monday that it had acquired Whisper Systems.

The enterprise-grade security systems for Android devices announced the ownership hand-off via its blog and explained that its current system users will still be able to use their services, but they will be offline for some period during the transition.

Whisper Systems is currently in its beta phase with several products including the WhisperCore 0.5, which protect the content kept on mobile devices such as Nexus S and Nexus One; Flashback 0.1, which encrypts backups of device content in the cloud; and RedPhone 0.4, which secures and encrypts phone calls.

This acquisition looks to be a talent grab as well as a beefing-up of Android capabilities for the microblogging behemoth, Twitter.

Security issues have not been unheard of in the Twittersphere, and as the company integrates deeper into individual devices and mobile softwares, the company and its users would be better served with more security features.

The Whisper Systems' blog stated that they were excited to work with Twitter and they are "looking forward to bringing our technology and our expertise into Twitter's products and services."

As the transition happens, RedPhone service will be interrupted immediately, but FlashBack users have a month to pull off any backup data they would like before that service also goes offline.

Last year, Twitter acquired Atebits, the company behind the popular Tweetie iPhone app and Mac desktop application; and this year it absorbed Julpan, a small start-up search service focused on analyzing social activity in order to improve search results.

Earlier this fall, the iPhone iOS upgrade brought Twitter into the system with a greater integration than iPhone users had ever seen and this may be something in the future for Android users, especially if Twitter is able to boast greater security with the addition.

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