Blackphone: Privacy-obsessed Smartphone

Can you hear me now? Not if you’re eavesdropping on a Blackphone. 

Privacy company Silent Circle has released a second version of its signature handheld, a smartphone designed to quell the data scraping and web tracking that’s become such an integral part of the digital economy in the last few years (and whose results might well end up with the NSA, if the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act passes).

Silent Circle is the brainchild of the inventor of the modestly named “Pretty Good Privacy” (PGP) encryption, Phil Zimmermann, and former Navy Seal Team Six sniper Mike Janke. In the beginning, Janke said, the Blackphone project was just a way for people working for his security firm SOC, since sold, to call home without having their communications intercepted. With its newer and easier to use model, it’s seeking industry clients in addition to individual security wonks.
“I began going around from Silicon Valley to Germany to Spain, and there just wasn’t anything,” Janke said. “I went Nato, I went to the US, to the British governments, and they all said, ‘No, we don’t know of anything,’ and I said, ‘Come on, you’ve got to have some super-secret tech,’ and they said, ‘No, it’s a big problem for us.’”
So Janke, who remembered using PGP as a Seal, sought out Zimmermann and went to work. Now, as the new iPhone and Samsung models hit the market, the Switzerland-based company, which runs a heavily modified version of Google’s Android mobile operating system, finally has support from Google.

Google didn’t support the initial software build, something that probably helped make the phone more popular, rather than less, with people concerned about NSA backdoors and data leakage. But now the tech giant is trying to break into the business software market, and that’s a sector that Silent Circle, with its subscription-based business model, has its sights set on. (The subscriptions to secure call and messaging apps that come with the Blackphone run out after a year.)
The new operating system is “about 20% Lollipop”, said CEO, Bill Conner, referring to the Android version Blackphone currently uses.

Google support is a relief to Silent Circle – in the previous version of the phone, users couldn’t download anything from the Google Play store and had to manage installation through web downloads or an old-fashioned hardware connection. The new version lets users download whatever they want and tweak its access to your data as you see fit in much the way the iPhone does – a feature Google-distributed builds of Android have notably avoided over the years.

Blackphone is encrypted end to end, if both people on the line are using either the phone itself or Silent Circle’s call and messaging apps. If someone tries to break into a Blackphone call, they’ll get a notification and the call will drop.
“But let’s say I have my Blackphone and I left my jacket at a hotel in Paris and they have a big, old landline and I’m calling from New York,” said Janke.
“I dial their number and I’m encrypted all the way from New York to the Paris public switch telephone network, and then I’m open to them,” he explained. “It’s either encrypted completely end-to-end, or encrypted to the public switch network and then open from there.”
Janke said he still hopes Google will adopt some of Silent Circle’s own features: “We hope that Google will federate some of the capabilities [of our phone],” he said. “They’ve got [support for multiple personas] in Android that’s coming out now. The problem with it is that it still leaves data across those spaces and the spaces aren’t segregated all the way down to the chip.”

Guardian:http://http://bit.ly/1VPGYMg

 

 

« The Blockchain Might Be The Next Disruptive Technology
Best Practices for Cybersecurity Breaches »

CyberSecurity Jobsite
Perimeter 81

Directory of Suppliers

Alvacomm

Alvacomm

Alvacomm offers holistic VIP cybersecurity services, providing comprehensive protection against cyber threats. Our solutions include risk assessment, threat detection, incident response.

Syxsense

Syxsense

Syxsense brings together endpoint management and security for greater efficiency and collaboration between IT management and security teams.

Practice Labs

Practice Labs

Practice Labs is an IT competency hub, where live-lab environments give access to real equipment for hands-on practice of essential cybersecurity skills.

LockLizard

LockLizard

Locklizard provides PDF DRM software that protects PDF documents from unauthorized access and misuse. Share and sell documents securely - prevent document leakage, sharing and piracy.

CYRIN

CYRIN

CYRIN® Cyber Range. Real Tools, Real Attacks, Real Scenarios. See why leading educational institutions and companies in the U.S. have begun to adopt the CYRIN® system.

Zayo

Zayo

Zayo is a leading global bandwidth infrastructure services provider for high-performance connectivity, secure colocation and flexible cloud services.

CloudHesive

CloudHesive

CloudHesive provides cloud solutions through consulting and managed services with a focus on security, reliability, availability and scalability.

Pathway Forensics

Pathway Forensics

Pathway Forensics is a leading provider of computer forensics, e-discovery services and digital investigations.

Threatspan

Threatspan

Threatspan is a cybersecurity firm helping shipping and maritime enterprises achieve and maintain nautical resilience in an age of increasing cyber threats.

InterVision

InterVision

InterVision is a leading Strategic Services Provider, assisting businesses in driving value and gaining a competitive edge by helping IT Leaders solve the most crucial challenges they face.

Fend

Fend

Fend secures smart infrastructure. We provide a robust, highly secure way to have situational awareness of IoT enabled assets.

BwCIRT

BwCIRT

BwCIRT is the Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) for Botswana and provides an official point of contact for dealing with computer security incidents.

British Security Industry Association - CySPAG

British Security Industry Association - CySPAG

CySPAG is a special interest group within the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) focused on reducing the risk of product related cybercrime.

Cybermerc

Cybermerc

Cybermerc's services, training programmes and cyber security solutions are designed to forge collaborations across industry, government and academia, for collective defence of our digital borders.

KSOC Labs

KSOC Labs

KSOC is an event-driven SaaS platform built to automatically remediate Kubernetes security risks.

The PenTesting Company

The PenTesting Company

The PenTesting Company is owned and operated by offensive security professionals. Penetration Testing is essentially all we do.

Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman is a global provider and integrator of complex, advanced and rapidly adapting information technology, cybersecurity, mobility and optimized services and solutions.

ITQ Latam

ITQ Latam

ITQ Latam are specialists in cybersecurity, in a convergent ecosystem of technological solutions in infrastructure, cloud and security networks.

Somerville

Somerville

Somerville are a full service IT partner with over 40 years experience delivering exceptional service and value to our customers.

CyberloQ Technologies

CyberloQ Technologies

CyberloQ Secure is a cybersecurity solution that enables clients to implement highly robust Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) that includes client-defined location-based geofencing constraints.

CIP Cyber

CIP Cyber

CIP Cyber is an online learning community with a mission of connecting, training, and certifying cybersecurity professionals to protect critical infrastructure.