A phone for the paranoid?

[Simon]

Email encryption firm Silent Circle has launched the Blackphone, a supposedly spy-proof Android handset that comes pre-loaded with a suite of privacy apps.

Silent Circle first announced the Blackphone last month, amid ongoing revelations of government spying on phone and web communications. At the time, the company promised better user privacy on mobile and played up its privacy credentials, with co-founder and chairman Phil Zimmerman predominantly known for inventing PGP encryption.

The company's now made the SIM-free Blackphone available for pre-order on its site, and revealed more about its capabilities. Prices on Blackphone's site are listed in US dollars, but pre-ordering to a UK address brings the cost to $755 including VAT (£454). Shipping is set to start in June.

Read more: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/387274/encrypted-blackphone-arrives-for-450

[Technical Ben]

If it has a sim, it's not spy proof.

[Gary]

Also someone else needs to be running Silent Circles apps 

[Technical Ben]

Well, I may have been a bit over the top there, but a sim is programed by the tel cos. So it has their own back doors (literally, they are able to control their own services naturally).
No idea if this phone actually side steps them, or completely encrypts everything that goes over the network.

[Gary]

Well, I may have been a bit over the top there, but a sim is programed by the tel cos. So it has their own back doors (literally, they are able to control their own services naturally).
No idea if this phone actually side steps them, or completely encrypts everything that goes over the network.

I think its a great gimmick to sell to the tinfoil hat brigade, they can still triangulate where you are from cell towers though.

[Technical Ben]

Or a direct link to your GPS.

[Gary]

Or a direct link to your GPS.

True

[pctech]

From what I have read the idea is encrypt the conversation/messages all the way from handset A to handset B which also has to be a blackphone.

As Phil Zimmerman is a smart guy I expect he will have taken this into account in the design Ben and thus isolated the SIM authentication operations from the voice/message encryption subsystem in the software stack.

[Gary]

Its a little black shiny gimmick for most. NSA GCHQ has already got your number and details, its not like its erasing your from the networks  I can see uses but not for the likes of most folk, and I'm sure there are very well hardened versions of all mobile OS's for those that need them already.

[Technical Ben]

From what I have read the idea is encrypt the conversation/messages all the way from handset A to handset B which also has to be a blackphone.

As Phil Zimmerman is a smart guy I expect he will have taken this into account in the design Ben and thus isolated the SIM authentication operations from the voice/message encryption subsystem in the software stack.

Yes. I know. It's one of those problems though. Your using a system from someone else (the sim, the phone the OS and the network). If "trust" is broken at any point, then security can be. Though as you say, if both the sender and receiver uses strong encryption, it's hard to practically impossible to decrypt.

[Gary]

This looks a bit more secure. Snappy name too "Earlier this month, Boeing submitted details about its new high-end smartphone, simply called "Black," to the FCC, along with a request that most of those details be kept secret. The Black (FCC ID H8V-BLK) is an Android phone with a feature for a very specific demographic: it will self-destruct if tampered with.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/boeings-black-this-android-phone-will-self-destruct/

[Technical Ben]

I've had phones that did that...

[Gary]

I've had phones that did that...

I did when I threw them... apart from one tiny Ericsson flip phone that seemed indestructible.

[Technical Ben]

Yeah, lost both their build quality and the brand.

[pctech]

Ericsson phones were superb.

Shame a lot of folks thought they were boring as they did their job exceptionally well.