Boeing and BlackBerry Making a Self-Destructing Phone

Rambo Tribble writes: It sounds like a Mission: Impossible scenario, but aerospace company Boeing is teaming with Canadian phone maker BlackBerry to produce an ultra-secure mobile phone that "self-destructs." The phone uses encryption on calls and is intended to serve the high-security needs of government and industry. As Blackberry CEO John Chen said, "We're pleased to announce that Boeing is collaborating with BlackBerry to provide a secure mobile solution for Android devices utilizing our BES 12 platform. That, by the way, is all they allow me to say."

No word yet if you'll need the services of the bomb squad when you go over your minutes.

Comments

"But it can be circumvented!"

[jones_supa]

Cue in the comments on how that security feature is not completely perfect, so therefore it has to be completely useless.

Re:"But it can be circumvented!"

[Charliemopps]

Cue in the comments on how that security feature is not completely perfect, so therefore it has to be completely useless.

You mean like the fact that Boeing already works very closely with the CIA/NSA and therefor this thing is 100% guaranteed to have a government backdoor per-installed AND the purchase of such a phone would automatically put on a watch list that would result in pretty much all of your traffic getting logged anyway?

Not perfect... more like, this phone likely does exactly the opposite of what it advertises.

Re:"But it can be circumvented!"

[Njorthbiatr]

I'm more curious how superior this is to using a burner phone.

High Expectations

[TraumaHound]

I expect big things, Blackberry have been world leaders in self destruction for the past eight years.

I've had 5 blacberries

[maliqua]

They've been making self destructing phones for quite some time now.

But the addition of a feature that allows you to control when and why it self destructs will be a huge improvement.

Re:Great Idea

[BarbaraHudson]

or too many false PIN attempts?

So some joker in your office can destroy your phone in a couple of minutes while you're in the washroom? That's pretty insecure.

God this place has gone downhill

[Pope Hagbard]

30 comments and all but one or two are brain-dead stupid. What happened to the intelligent posters? Slashdot used to be known for having pretty intelligent discussion.

Re:We should have done this decades ago

[Holistic Missile]

Not all of us are 'proud to be American' this last decade or so.

For the record, I've never personally profited from any of our government's shenanigans, nor have I ever worked a defense-related or government-generated job. Like most people that I know, I have gained nothing from the government's imperialistic activities except more disdain for them.

I have actually communicated directly with my congressman and both of my senators in person and via email numerous times about the subject of making so many surplus weapons and selling them to those countries (or anyone, for that matter). I included the remote self-destruct idea in the event of them being used on a tyrant's own people, or against us or any of our allies. It was like talking to a rock (three of them, actually). Apparently, a big sack of money always wins...

My lifestyle is actually based on designing and manufacturing medical research and surgical/pharmaceutical products which actually benefit people worldwide. The products I design and make are used in genetic research, blood collection and component separation, heart pumps, stent systems, many laproscopic surgery products, and hundreds of various drugs. While the corporations that I work with are in some ways corporate douchebags, much like the 'defense' contractors, they at least contribute to the well-being of the people of the world in the end. How many lives did your work save today? :-)