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Boeing Preparing an Ultra-Secure Smartphone

bobwrit writes in with a story about Boeing's new secure government phones project. "Earlier this week, it was revealed that aerospace firm Boeing was working on a high security mobile device for the various intelligence departments. This device will most likely be released later this year, and at a lower price point than other mobile phones targeted at the same communities. Typically, phones in this range cost about 15,000-20,000 per phone, and use custom hardware and software to get the job done. This phone will most likely use Android as it's main operating system of choice, which lowers the cost per phone, since Boeing's developers don't have to write their own operating system from scratch."

29 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. What about the network side of things? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How secure is the data at the tower?

    1. Re:What about the network side of things? by Skapare · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What data? All you can see are a bunch of scrambled bits.

      --
      now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
    2. Re:What about the network side of things? by Skapare · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So you are saying the MitM has the keys?

      --
      now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
    3. Re:What about the network side of things? by jonwil · · Score: 4, Informative

      Unless the engineers at Boeing working on this are total idiots (which is highly unlikely) all that a cell tower would see (fake or otherwise) is an encrypted stream (probably a VPN) heading between the handset and some locked down secure server out there.

  2. I wonder if this is an effective use of resources by ShooterNeo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thanks to declassified files and leaked files from the former Soviets, it is possible to figure exactly how the Soviets usually stole their secrets.

    It would be very interesting to analyze how often they stole information via technical means (tapping phones, intercepting transmissions, etc) vs. human intel means (sending Anna Chapmen to coach you into giving it all up)

    I have a sneaky suspicion that more than 90% of the time, the Russians/Soviets succeed with human intel. Heck, if I knew top secret information, and Anna Chapman came after me with the goal of convincing me to give it all up, I'm not sure how long I could hold out under her interrogation...

  3. GPL Apply here? by tekiegreg · · Score: 2

    So if I take an existing OS (Android in this case) under GPL and I alter for greater security, does that have to be release too if all I'm doing is some sort of internal release? I'm sure this has been answered to death with Linux but just curious.

    --
    ...in bed
    1. Re:GPL Apply here? by sribe · · Score: 5, Informative

      GPL has NEVER required release of source to anyone other than those to whom you release executable. GPL has NEVER restricted internal forks/releases.

    2. Re:GPL Apply here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The GPL only requires that you distribute the source code to the same people you distribute the binary to. (And requires that you give them the same ability in turn.) Presumably, this means that Boeing has to give the government the source code, but that's it. The government could choose to release it, but I doubt they would.

    3. Re:GPL Apply here? by Skapare · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They could do the same with it as they did with SELinux. If it's truly secure, it can be fully open. Just don't leave the keys in it.

      --
      now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
    4. Re:GPL Apply here? by TrueSpeed · · Score: 2

      So if I take an existing OS (Android in this case) under GPL and I alter for greater security, does that have to be release too if all I'm doing is some sort of internal release? I'm sure this has been answered to death with Linux but just curious.

      The Linux part of Android is under the GPL. The other is under the Apache License.

  4. Ultra-secure smartphone by aglider · · Score: 3, Funny

    without Windows?
    Ha! Impossible Mission!

    --
    Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
  5. Re:I wonder if this is an effective use of resourc by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, the Russians used to get most aerospace intelligence from the magazine 'Aviation Week and Space Technology' (usually referred to as 'Aviation Leak').

    And there reporters weren't even remotely good looking.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  6. Re:this is the phone I'd want to carry by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

    SInce when does that matter?

  7. Re:this is the phone I'd want to carry by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    if only it was that easy.

    the story goes that if you are arrested (so far; perhaps later it can be pre-arrest) you lose all property rights. at least that's what 'law enforcement' wants us to believe. they carry guns and can ruin our days; its usually best not to contradict that kind of element.

    your phone will be 'scanned' on the spot by special usb adapters. you won't have anything to say about it; you'll be in cuffs.

    do I like our police state? HELL NO! I'm simply stating the facts of what life is like in the US, these days. if you travel with a smartphone and are stopped by cops, you COULD have your privacy invaded right there on the spot.

    its horribly wrong; but a lot of what the police state does is wrong, today.

    --

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  8. Boeing is designing it ... by GNUALMAFUERTE · · Score: 4, Funny

    And they still won't allow you to use it on a fucking plane.

    --
    WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
  9. A bit hypocritical isn't it? by dryriver · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So the people who feel entitled to intercept everybody else's emails, text messages, instant messaging, social media usage, phonecalls, internet browsing, credit card usage, GPS driving data and much more, preferably without any legal warrants of any sort being required, feel entitled to having "highly secure means of communicating" when it comes to themselves? Doesn't this create a strange division in society, where a small, select group of individuals enjoys complete communication privacy/security in their day to day dealings, while everybody else's supposedly "private" data is one easy keypress or mouseclick away from being fully searchable/viewable? How can there be any "accountability", "fairness" or "balance of power" in a society where a few select people enjoy "total communication privacy" and are completely "untransparent" and "invisible" as a result, while Joe Ordinary, who pays for all of this to happen with his taxes, has his own right to "personal privacy" completely annulled, and is forced to become completely "fully transparent" to the system at press of a key? I don't see how this kind of starkly assymetric "privacy rights inequality" can be good for a society, and least of all for a supposed "free & fair" Western democracy where people are - in theory - supposed to enjoy equal rights, as well as "basic rights", like the simple right to personal privacy.

    --
    Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
    1. Re:A bit hypocritical isn't it? by chemicaldave · · Score: 2

      So the people who feel entitled to intercept everybody else's emails, text messages, instant messaging, social media usage, phonecalls, internet browsing, credit card usage, GPS driving data and much more, preferably without any legal warrants of any sort being required, feel entitled to having "highly secure means of communicating" when it comes to themselves?

      I don't think it's going to be available to blackhat and defcon attendees.

    2. Re:A bit hypocritical isn't it? by PNutts · · Score: 2

      You must be new here. And by "here" I mean Earth.

  10. plausible deniability by mspring · · Score: 2

    Phone should have a "plausible deniability" mode where it appears like a regular, non-secure phone, easily giving up lots of details to any browsing / scanning attempt, while hiding all secure content.

  11. 15,000-20,000 what? by tirerim · · Score: 2

    15,000 to 20,000 dollars? If so, seriously? Does that just factor in R&D to develop the software for a very small number of phones, or is there some other reason why they should be so expensive?

  12. we should all have these by schlachter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Everyone should have an ultra-secure smart phone. Get the costs down and make it a standard feature for smartphones. It shouldn't be something only for the gov.

    --
    My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
  13. Re:My question... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

    Will the bootloader be locked or unlocked? It would be nice to have a secure variant of CM7 or CM9 on this device.

    On a secure device?

    On a device that security would depend on complete control of it's configuration?

    The answer is left as an exercise for the student.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  14. Units, you fuckers by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Informative

    Typically, phones in this range cost about 15,000-20,000 per phone

    Is that in Turkish Lira? Bargain!

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  15. Re:So will there be a Boeing app store? by NicknamesAreStupid · · Score: 2

    Yes, they have Words with Friends, too, but all the words are redacted.

  16. Re:So secure they brag about it by million_monkeys · · Score: 2

    hackity hack hack wait till you lose one on the tarmack.....

    First they have to find some way to keep their developers from leaving the prototype in a bar. For some reason, that isn't as easy as you'd think.

  17. I hear they're charging the taxpayer $5,000,000 by mbkennel · · Score: 4, Funny

    for an ultra-secure implementation of "Angry JDAMs"

  18. Re:this is the phone I'd want to carry by sjames · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You missed the continuity there, and jumped straight from random traffic stop or some such to arrested (for what exactly?)

    For resisting arrest, of course! It's the new black.

  19. Re:I wonder if this is an effective use of resourc by ClickOnThis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    No, the Russians used to get most aerospace intelligence from the magazine 'Aviation Week and Space Technology' (usually referred to as 'Aviation Leak').

    And there reporters weren't even remotely good looking.

    Well, Aviation Week leaked at both ends: the west got intel on the Soviets with it too.

    I heard a funny story once (perhaps apocryphal?) about someone working on photographs taken during the Mayday Parade of all the military hardware the Soviets were showing off. He was trying to figure out basic dimensions and capabilities, etc., by examining the hardware and comparing it to the size of other things in the photographs. Someone came up to him, looked over his shoulder, and said, "Oh hey, the Mayday Parade." The guy with the photographs covered them up along with his work, turned to his visitor, and hissed "You shouldn't be looking at this!" The other fellow sad, "whaddya mean, it's all here in Aviation Week." He opened the magazine to the exact same photograph, with an article containing all of the data the fellow was trying to gather.

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  20. Uncrackable phone being developed. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 2

    See Boeing is Seattle Washington. Some super smart engineers were laid off by another tech company in town and Boeing scooped them up for a low price in the depths of the recession. They pitched this idea involving some, "protected audio path", "protected video path", "Signed drivers" etc that essentially guarantee uncrackable computing platform. One of the engineers "it is impossible to crack it because, even legitimate users can hardly use it, hackers? foggetabotit"

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    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact