Amazon acquired “Wickr” an Encrypted messaging app 

Wickr, which offers secure communications for businesses, government agencies and individuals by encrypted messaging, was founded in 2012. On 26 June, Amazon acquired Wickr. However, the terms of the deal were not disclosed yet.

Vice President of Amazon Web Services, Stephen Schmidt said, “We’re excited to share that AWS(Amazon Web Services) has acquired Wickr, an innovative company that has developed the industry’s most secure, end-to-end encrypted, communication technology”.

He also said, “With the move to hybrid work environments, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, enterprises and government agencies have a growing desire to protect their communications,” he wrote.

Basically Schmidt indicates that the acquisition of Wickr is partially influenced by the need to preserve information security while working remotely and in this tech driven world keeping information safe a first priority for every company. 

Though Amazon acquired Wickr, however current Wickr users will not see any kind of significant changes for the time being. 

Wickr was famous for its  “military grade” encryption messaging services for business and government users. Wickr alongside with another secure messaging competitor like “Signal” has been popular among journalists and whistleblowers and Wickr was among the apps that were reportedly used to leak information from the White House during the Trump administration.