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from the This-phone-will-self-destruct-in-five-seconds dept.
Papas Fritas writes:
"Reuters reports that Boeing has unveiled a smartphone that deletes all data and renders the device inoperable if there is any attempt to open its casing. 'The Boeing Black phone is manufactured as a sealed device both with epoxy around the casing and with screws, the heads of which are covered with tamper proof covering to identify attempted disassembly,' says a letter included in the FCC filing. 'Any attempt to break open the casing of the device would trigger functions that would delete the data and software contained within the device and make the device inoperable.' Boeing's Black phone will be sold primarily to government agencies and companies engaged in contractual activities with those agencies that are related to defense and homeland security. The device will be marketed and sold in a manner such that low level technical and operational information about the product will not be provided to the general public. 'We saw a need for our customers in a certain market space.' says Boeing spokeswoman Rebecca Yeamans."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday February 27 2014, @08:45PM
Yep, that's Steve Jobs's ghost wondering how easily he would have gotten extra cash with a totally unrepairable phone, "for your own safety, because you're sooo the most important customers in the whole world".
(Score: 5, Insightful) by frojack on Thursday February 27 2014, @08:49PM
All those government guys carrying blackberrys, believing they were safe, are going to jump on this. Probably even Obama and Merckel.
But you watch, someone will backdoor it for the NSA.
Discussion should abhor vacuity, as space does a vacuum.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday February 28 2014, @05:53PM
If the NSA wasn't in the room while it was being designed, I would be utterly shocked.
They paid the RSA to sabotage large scale cryptography, why I am to believe they couldn't do the same with another military-industrial complex corporation?
If you use their products and think your data is safe from them, I have a bridge to sell you....
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday February 28 2014, @06:01PM
There is any number of ways this could already be back-doored.
Even using Public/Private Key encryption, there is nothing to prevent the phone from sending another copy, encrypted with the NSA's key directly to some repository.
I've got to believe that since it is primarily developed for the Government, its backdoored right out of the gate.
Discussion should abhor vacuity, as space does a vacuum.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Marvin on Friday February 28 2014, @07:08AM
The iPhone is as (un)repairable as many other options. Samsung's Galaxy series or the Google Nexus series for example.