As it stands, it's basically one level up from an urban myth. Some guy asked her to do something shady at a security conference, and it's easy for the FBI to claim they don't know anything about it.
Really? The FBI agent approached her and started talking to her before she had even removed her mic? And everybody (including the agent) heard?
Let me guess, she vehemently denied the offer? (I'll admit I didn't even bother to read past the second paragraph of this "article".)
I don't think so...
More to the point, if it's possible for her company to compromise customers' communications unilaterally, then the service is insecure, regardless of what promises they make or what type of encryption they (claim to) use.
The law is in 18 U.S. Code sec. 912: Officer or employee of the United States:
> Whoever falsely assumes or pretends to be an officer or employee acting under the authority of the United States or any department, agency or officer thereof, and acts as such, or in such pretended character demands or obtains any money, paper, document, or thing of value, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
That is, 1) impersonating a federal employee, and 2) using that impersonation to get or demand something of value.
This account does not have the person actually getting information, nor demanding access, so does not appear to be felonious.
For example, suppose it was private citizen X impersonating an FBI agent to test Sell's resolve. The query was "if she'd be willing to install a backdoor into Wickr that would allow the FBI to retrieve information", not if citizen X (impersonating an FBI agent) can get that information.
That doesn't seem to be illegal according to the impersonation law.
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-story-of-joseph-nacchio-a...
At this point, if I wanted to use my phone for any truly critical communication (e.g. like in middle eastern countries where lives are literally at stake), I'd only use open source software.
You could start a company that had the all of following people as founders:
Ron Rivest
Adi Shamir
Leonard Adleman
Phil Zimmermann
Whitfield Diffie
Martin Hellman
Dan Bernstein
Bruce Schneier
Edward Snowden
Keith Alexander
Theo de Raadt
Show me the source code. At first glance, I didn't see that option as available at the Wickr web site.
BTW stupid of Wickr to not obtain the wickr.com domain. I'll let people google for the real URL just to make my point.
And beyond source-code:
How do you shield your equipment? (tempest, also active attack)
How do you guard your equipment? (evil maid)
Real life is the triumph of convenience over security :(
There's also the wrench cryptanalysis discussed in xkcd.com/538. For most people the mouseover text nails it:
Actual actual reality: nobody cares about his secrets.