Blackphone 2: A Smartphone So Secure Even Hillary Clinton Might Use It

By  Fionna Agomuoh @FionnaatIBT f.agomuoh@ibtimes.com on March 16 2015 8:15 AM EDT

Silent Circle claims Blackphone 2 is the world's most secure smartphone. Silent Circle

Many vendors are now doubling down on their products’ security features and services in the wake of several high-profile breaches in recent months. Cyberattacks on supposedly tech-savvy organizations like Sony, and even the U.S. State Department, show the holes in current standards. “It’s not too surprising that a lot of companies are becoming security focused. Security and privacy have taken on a new meaning,” said IDC analyst Ramon Llamas.
And if you’re, say, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who only wants to carry one device, you might want to make doubly sure it’s highly secure.
Enter Silent Circle, which says its products and services, including its new Blackphone 2 smartphone, are not only secure, but private, giving users the peace of mind it claims is hard to find on competitors.
The Blackphone 2 is unassuming in terms of looks. It’s a lot like the original Blackphone, which launched last year. Under the hood, specifications are good, including a 5.5-inch Full HD (1,920x1080 resolution) display, a 64-bit octa-core processor, 3GB of memory and a 3,060mAh battery. The device will sell for $629 when it debuts in July. It will be sold globally through the Blackphone store.
With such a premium price, the Blackphone 2 could have
trouble capturing casual fans. Silent Circle markets its products and services more to business clients rather than the average consumer, though it believes some individuals will also find value in its buttoned-down approach to security. Partners include telecoms like America Movil and Telecel in Latin America, KPN in the Netherlands and BigOn in the Middle East.
Companies including Apple, which develops the iOS operating system and Google, with its Android OS, have had to deal with the aftermath of different breaches. However, Silent Circle says this is down to a fundamental flaw in how some vendors have addressed security and privacy. Silent Circle sees privacy as what is exposed when security measures fail and software or devices are compromised. “It’s about what privacy enables as opposed to what you need to lock down and protect,” said Silent Circle Chief Marketing Officer Rob Smith.
The star feature on the Blackphone 2 is its privacy-focused software. The device runs the custom, Android-based PrivatOS 1.1, which includes advanced administrator controls that allow users to lock or wipe devices for the sake of protecting data. Its Silent Suite software is encrypted on all fronts: messaging, video and voice calls and contacts. Encryption scrambles information on electronic devices so that it’s unreadable even if a device is compromised. Silent Circle apps include Silent Phone, Silent Text and Silent contacts, which are available not only for the Blackphone 2, but also for other Android and iOS devices.
Android is notorious for not being the most secure system. It’s open source and can be built upon by anyone, from major companies to amateur developers. Even Google Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai has said Android is designed to be open, not secure. For this reason, most companies opt for software and devices from the likes of Apple and BlackBerry when it comes to employee devices. “You can’t argue against its popularity, but a lot of businesses say, ‘We just really have some doubts about the security capability’ [on Android],” Llamas said.
Silent Circle is doing its part to make Android more secure and more attractive to business users.
The company sees itself as direct competition with BlackBerry in particular, which has long been one of the primary suppliers of hardware and software for business smartphone users. Smith said that BlackBerry should be concerned about new offerings meant to make Android more secure, calling BlackBerry’s software “a failed architecture.”
BlackBerry devices accounted for about 20 percent of the smartphone market in 2009, according to the International Data Corp. That number has now dropped to a mere 0.5 percent in 2014. Not so fast, however. BlackBerry has made a play for revamping its image in recent months. The company has two new phones – the BlackBerry Passport and BlackBerry Classic – on the market as well as new software suites, and has also made software deals with major companies like Samsung. “Rarely if ever do you hear someone say ‘somebody hacked my BlackBerry.’ It’s still the gold standard for a lot of people out there,” Llamas said.
Though Silent Circle aims to market to businesses, it could also see competition from more consumer-focused brands like Apple and Microsoft, which are also making a play for enterprise clients. Llamas notes that businesses often trust Apple products over Android, while Windows products continue to be the standard for many companies. Software including Office 365, Skype and Cortana are Microsoft staples that are becoming increasingly more useful to business.