The company said in its statement today that it will provide details “in the coming months” on ways that current users can preserve their data from the Wickr Me platform. The platform itself will remain in operation for one year after that, with Amazon planning to shut the system down completely on December 31, 2023. Wickr Me is still working at the moment, but will stop accepting new users at the end of December. “Wickr’s secure communications solutions help enterprises and government organizations adapt to this change in their workforces and is a welcome addition to the growing set of collaboration and productivity services that AWS offers customers and partners.” It may be down and stopping you from updating the Wickr Me Private. “Public sector customers use Wickr for a diverse range of missions, from securely communicating with office-based employees to providing service members at the tactical edge with encrypted communications,” said Steve Schmidt, AWS vice president and CISO, in a blog post at the time of the acquisition. Please check your wifi / mobile data connection and verify that it is working properly. Amazon, at the time, indicated that the purchase was aimed at improving security for its many large organizational customers, who face growing threats given the shift to hybrid working. Wickr is a relatively recent acquisition by Amazon, having started life in 2012 as a public-facing app before being purchased in the summer of 2021 by the hyperscaler. Wickr Me was popular with journalists and whistleblowers alike as a method of secure communication of sensitive information, according to experts, but it was also alleged to be in wide use as a medium for illicit content like child sex abuse and drug transactions, according to a June report from NBC News.Īmazon’s statement on the pending closure of Wickr Me doesn’t address those allegations directly, but it does emphasize a renewed focus on the enterprise and government versions of the app. Wickr has been in operation for a decade, making it one of the first end-to-end encrypted messaging apps on the market. Thankfully, alternatives aren't hard to find, with apps like Signal providing robust secure messaging.Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced late last week that it will close down the free Wickr Me encrypted messaging service, saying in a blog post that it plans to “refocus” on its related AWS Wickr and Wickr Enterprise products at the expense of the consumer wing of the Wickr family. In June, NBC News, citing court documents and information from law enforcement and activists, said the platform had become a “go-to destination” for those trafficking in that type of content.īefore next year's shutdown, Wickr said it would share information with users on how to save their data. The announcement comes following reports that Amazon had been doing little to combat the problem of people using Wickr Me to exchange child sexual abuse material. From Reddit and Twitter to Wickrhild sexual abuse imagery on the internet has been an issue since the early days of the consumer web. “After careful consideration, we will be concentrating Wickr’s focus on securing our business and public sector customers’ data and communications with AWS Wickr and Wickr Enterprise, and have decided to discontinue our consumer product, Wickr Me,” the company said, adding that it was working on developing the capability for Wickr customers to securely communicate with individuals outside of their organization. The shutdown won’t affect the AWS and Enterprise versions of Wickr. In a blog post spotted by The Verge, the Amazon-owned company announced it would stop accepting new Wickr Me registrations by the end of the year before ultimately discounting the service altogether on December 31st, 2023. Secure messaging platform Wickr is shutting down its consumer-facing app.
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