EvilZone
General Tech => Hardware => : r00k January 17, 2014, 01:34:22 AM
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So this is a phone that is to be released soon by Silent Circle, a company that provided encrypted email services that shutdown due to a request by the F.B.I. It runs this 'Private OS' that comes with all these apps that provides you with security. To me it looks pointless really, but what do you guys think ?
https://www.blackphone.ch/
They state You can make and receive secure phone calls; exchange secure texts; exchange and store secure files; have secure video chat; browse privately; and anonymize your activity through a VPN.
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Will probably get shut down too... Fucking pigs.
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Keep in mind that this group isn't led by just any person, but Phil Zimmermann himself (creator of PGP).
It should be noted that the idea of cryptographically secure telephones is pretty old. Back in the 90s, there were some projects like ZRTP and PGPfone to establish VoIP and telephony cryptosystems, but they never caught on.
I don't know how this will fare. The fact that it's Android-based and doesn't use an OS built from scratch worries me.
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Keep in mind that this group isn't led by just any person, but Phil Zimmermann himself (creator of PGP).
It should be noted that the idea of cryptographically secure telephones is pretty old. Back in the 90s, there were some projects like ZRTP and PGPfone to establish VoIP and telephony cryptosystems, but they never caught on.
I don't know how this will fare. The fact that it's Android-based and doesn't use an OS built from scratch worries me.
From my knowledge of PGP and VoIP, it is necessary to have Wifi or other forms to connect to the internet. PGP was developed in the early 90's, but with modern day smartphones you have 3g/HSPA and 4g/HSPA+. So you have plenty of speed to use VoIP efficiently. Really the only thing holding back mainstream or more popular use of them would be government bodies who have control issues.
Also wouldn't the receiving end of the encrypted messages need to have the same software and maintain the same build as the sender ? essentially being P2P encryption.
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Yes, both sides need to have the program installed.
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Seems like Silent Circle has been working on mobile P2P encryption for sometime now, i guess this is where a lot of their funding comes from.
https://silentcircle.com/
very pricey though
Will probably get shut down too... Fucking pigs.
maybe not
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maybe not
Hopefully not, but why wouldn't they when they simply just.... can.
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Hopefully not, but why wouldn't they when they simply just.... can.
They seem to have left Silent Circle alone.. so far. Aside from their encrypted email service as well as lavabit, Which seems to be a big fad lately.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/08/lavabit-encrypted-email-service-shuts-down-cant-say-why
there could be a myriad of factors in how and why they took down silent circle's email services and not the app. I suppose we can only wait to find out about Blackphone.
Pre-ordering begins at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Spain. February 24, 2014
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Well since android in developed by google... I dont trust google that much.
Besides eventhough google claims android is open source much of the actual code is not availible and most vendors ship a binary blob with god knows what.
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So back to the Blackphone , today at MWC it was announced/made available for purchase. I must say the price is very disappointing, way too expensive for the hardware being used, but you're paying for the 'services' that silent circle provides.
https://www.blackphone.ch/
Now the company that designed the hardware for Blackphone was geeksphone, they released a phone called the 'Revolution' which has the capability to "Switch to the innovative B2G OS by Mozilla, or other community-developed builds" and is more reasonably priced.
http://www.geeksphone.com/
Both of these phones are sub-par from today's mainstream hardware specifications, but they come with little goodies to suffice.
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There is not much information about the specifics of how the encryption and stuff works.. And isn't there a way to do the same with a custom ROM?
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There is not much information about the specifics of how the encryption and stuff works..
They use the Silent Circle encryption software for the Blackphone if you're curious.
https://silentcircle.com/web/how-it-works/
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They use the Silent Circle encryption software for the Blackphone if you're curious.
https://silentcircle.com/web/how-it-works/
That website is marketing and scary.
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https://evilzone.org/found-it-on-the-webs/blackphone-claims-to-be-first-nsa-proof-smartphone/