CryptoPhone Sales Jump To 100,000+, Even at $3500

An anonymous reader writes "Since Edward Snowden started making NSA files public last year, GSMK has seen a jump in sales. There are more than 100,000 CryptoPhones in use today. How secure they really are will be determined in the future. But I'm sure that some government agencies, not just in the U.S., are very interested in getting a list of users." For the price the company's charging for a modified Galaxy S3, it had better be as secure as they claim; otherwise, the free and open source RedPhone from Moxie Marlinspike's Whisper Systems seems like something to think about first.

Comments

You can still buy one?

[Opportunist]

Then rest assured that governments know how to get into them. Else we'd have seen some kind of harebrained reason why these phones can no longer be bought and used.

Re:You can still buy one?

[Anonymous Coward]

Then rest assured that governments know how to get into them. Else we'd have seen some kind of harebrained reason why these phones can no longer be bought and used.

They just need to track who communicates with whom. The content is not relevant.

Re:You can still buy one?

[Anonymous Coward]

Then rest assured that governments know how to get into them. Else we'd have seen some kind of harebrained reason why these phones can no longer be bought and used.

I don't quite follow the reasoning going from sentence 1 to conclusion at 2. Germany is not really cowboy land. The very reason it is based in Germany is because of the privacy laws there. It's actually illegal for them to build in a backdoor. Merkel should buy one :)

When the cryptophone was at its first version, the first thing they did was to organise a hackaton for hacker friends to try to find bugs. At that time everyone could just download the software themselves, and it still is available for review: http://www.cryptophone.de/en/b...

Before judging too quickly, maybe check some facts about Germany's laws. Disclaimer: i knew the company back in 2003, and i know its founders personally.

Re:'Modified'

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

$3500 is a lot to spend on software

$350 million (not counting the cost of the S3s or whatever is included in the '2 years of service') to harden one of the mobile tracking and advertising OSes into something actually secure probably isn't wildly out of the ballpark (and probably far less than a proper actually-verified-with-proofs-and-stuff Secure System OS of that complexity).

On the other hand, I would be shocked, shocked to hear that their security claims are...inflated... and there's a good deal of profit margin in there.

Re:"Secure service"?

[fustakrakich]

I how you are aware that it doesn't matter. Back doors are simply mandated into the service, possibly, or probably, by secret law, or it is declared illegal for use. Read the contract. Unless it specifically says the company will never, under any circumstances comply with a government order to open up its communications, then the service should not be considered secure. And even then, you still have to trust them. That is living a fantasy in today's world.

only really secure communication

[Max_W]

Go to the stadium in shorts and t-shirt, freshly washed (and dried indoors). Wear new style running shoes with very thin sole, as recommended in Scott Jurek's "Eat and run".

Talk while walking via woods or a park, among trees.

Not phone, no watch, no camera, no heavy clothing.

And speak quietly anyway. Still it does not guarantee privacy.

All other talk or messaging are public. It is a new brave world where there are no secrets.