BlackBerry Says Its New Android Smartphone DTEK 50 Is the 'World's Most Secure' (theverge.com)

BlackBerry, which once assumed the tentpole position in the mobile market, announced on Tuesday the BlackBerry DTEK 50, its second smartphone powered by Google's Android operating system. The Canadean company is marketing the DTEK as the 'world's most secure' phone. It is priced at $300, and will go on sale in select markets on August 8. The Verge adds:The DTEK50 has a 5.2-inch, 1080p display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, 3GB RAM, 13-megapixel camera, and 2,610mAh battery. The 8-megapixel front camera also includes a flash for taking selfies. It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow with BlackBerry's software features, such as the Hub. The software is similar to the software on the Priv released last year. The security features are highlighted right in the device's name, as it has BlackBerry's DTEK software that protects users from malware and other security problems often seen on Android smartphones. The DTEK app lets users quickly get an overview of their device's security and take action on any potential issues. BlackBerry says that it has modified Android with its own technology originally developed for the BB10 platform to make it more secure. The company is also committing to rapid updates to deliver security patches shortly after they are released.

Comments

Try again.

[wkwilley2]

The "world's most secure" comes with free backdoor access for anyone who comes knocking.

No thanks BB, you're no longer relevant.

Re:Try again.

[saloomy]

Yeah.... No Thanks Mr. Chen. Apple's phone is more secure than anything you believe in making. Read Here

Re:Try again.

[msauve]

Yep. Link right here, describing their "security."

Re:Try again.

[TheGratefulNet]

how do you KNOW apple is more secure?

have you seen all the files in the source build chain, along with auditing the silicon used in all data paths?

of course not.

we have apples' WORD that its secure.

maybe its true, maybe its all a PR stunt and they cooperate with LEOs just as much as BB does.

you and I and 99.9% of the world have zero insight into this. lets be honest, shall we?

Re:Try again.

[Penguinisto]

Exactly. Not to mention that it appears (at least to me) that Blackberry is desperately casting about for a niche to make itself relevant.

There's no longer a real difference difference between what Blackberry makes and what is made by LG, Samsung, Huawei, Motorola, Xiaomi, ASUS, Sony... so what's the point of getting a Blackberry again?

They had a chance long ago, but chose to sit on their fat laurels instead of innovating. This is what they get as a result.

(I mean, damn, if they were to go Android early-on and customize/modify it for BES, then improve BES itself and give that away to enterprises, they might have had a chance to stay at least somewhat relevant... )

Re:Try again.

[jellomizer]

However with Apple Popularity, You would expect to hear about hacking exploits all the time and some open to the world problems that will demand that you upgrade. and Hear about people with old phones who can't upgrade getting hacked and all this other nasty stuff.

Honestly I hear more about android hacks (inside malware available on the Google Store) then from Apple.

I am not saying Apple is golden. However current history shows it is rather good.

Re:Try again.

[saloomy]

Well, for starters at the very least, they STATE that their end-goal is to be secure. So thats a good starting point. Now lets look at the biggest tell-tale sign: no evidence to the contrary. We have discussed on ./ and have come to the consensus (yeah, right!) that no secret can be kept for very long since it would involve a large number of people. The Snowden's of the organization would leak it, if for nothing else, to be seduced by Anna Chapman , or it would be common knowledge among LEO investigators. It is not currently.

There have been many people, including FBI Director James Comey whom have sworn before Congress that they can not crack iOS 9 on modern iPhones. Not in a round-a-bout testimony either. Doing so while having knowledge of the contrary is flat-out illegal, and Comey doesn't have the political clout of Hillary to lie to Congress and keep his freedom. He would not lie so willfully, he would bob and weave to avoid answering the questions related to it.

But even IF he lied, and even IF the govt was able to keep it a secret, and even IF Apple believes one thing and does another. So?

It's obviously too important a secret to blow open for the likes of whatever information you have to hide, and so in a court of law, you would simply use the fruit-of-a-poisoned-tree defense to get whatever was being held against you thrown out, effectively disarming the threat against you. iPhones are pretty secure.

Re:Try again.

[ThatsNotPudding]

The heart of the matter: software is moot if there is not true, verifiable, open hardware from the lithographs on up.

Re:Try again.

[JohnFen]

I don't think there's any such thing as 'secure' anymore, not for anything.

Anymore?

If you think of security as a binary proposition (either you have it or you don't), then nothing has ever been secure. All security falls somewhere on a continuum, and absolute security is an ideal that cannot ever be actually achieved.

Re:Try again.

[AK Marc]

BB is also the only one that let you own your own messaging server and run everything through there, with encryption they had zero control over. That makes it 100% better than everyone else.

"most secure"

[celeb8]

The world's most secure smartphone, if you trust every government in the world and BlackBerry employees given the authority to choose which government requests they assist with by ignoring your privacy...

Re:"most secure"

[MightyMartian]

Most secure if you also ignore Chen's frequent attacks on Apple for not just handing data over to the US government... which, when you think about it, rather suggests that Blackberry's products are not really all that secure at all.

I'd get worked up, but the reality is that no one really gives a flying fuck anymore about Blackberry.

Its secure enogh that you wont notice

[future assassin]

the RCMP snooping through your phone https://news.vice.com/article/...

Doesn't the CEO's recent comments counter this?

[UnknowingFool]

BlackBerry CEO Chen recently said he was "disturbed" by Apple's stance on security. Namely Apple refused to work with the FBI to create special OS to allow an iPhone to be brute force cracked. "If the world is in danger, we should be able to help out," he said. How does this resolve with this BlackBerry being "the most secure". I read that statement as BlackBerry would have cooperated with the FBI to hack a customer's phone. What is to stop BlackBerry from planting backdoors in their OS to allow this?

Re:What's the point?

[saloomy]

Android is Open Source, so one could strip all the Google analytics out of it. I believe this is what Amazon has done with Fire, and what Cyanogen has done? They have displaced google services for their own, or third parties. I remember reading on how to change Android to use duckduckgo secure search. I still don't trust BBY to do it though.

Dear Blackberry...

[Lumpy]

Does it report when I am on a government spying cellphone tower?
Does it report when the connection is untrusted or detects a MITM?
Does it do encryption without using ANY of your services?
Does it not allow any software to be installed without rebooting to an admin mode and then only allows offline apk installs?
Does it wipe all user storage before reboot?

No?

Then it is not secure.... in fact it's insecure as hell.

The "Canadean" company

[Krazy Kanuck]

I didn't realize Blackberry was owned by a softdrink research company. www.canadean.com

Tentpole?

[tsqr]

BlackBerry, which once assumed the tentpole position in the mobile market

"Frozen" is a tent pole for Disney. The iPhone is a tent pole for Apple. The Galaxy line of phones is a tent pole for Samsung. There is no such thing as a "tentpole position" in a market. Perhaps the editor meant "pole position"?

BlackBerry Android with enhanced security features

[khz6955]

"BlackBerry says that it has modified Android with its own technology originally developed for the BB10 platform to make it more secure"

Are there any technical details as to how BlackBerry achieves enhanced security on Android?

Re:BB security and BES

[Z00L00K]

Also make sure that no bloatware exists on the phone.

Third party bloat apps are the primary cause for problems.

Canadean?

[nyet]

Where is "Canadean" stuff made?

Rebranded Alcatel Idol 4

[kosmosik]

This phone is basically rebranded Alcatel Idol 4 (which Alcatel itself rebrands from chinese TCL corporation) with custom Blackberry ROM and software.

I would rather buy Blackphone for security.