Boeing working on top-secret self-destructing smartphone for government agents

Friday, March 07, 2014 by: L.J. Devon, Staff Writer
Tags: Boeing, smartphone, high tech security

(NaturalNews) The Federal Communications Commission Office of Engineering and Technology harbors a list of tests coming from Boeing, which reveal the development of a top-secret smartphone designed especially for government agents. Here they are on the FCC website.

Trying to keep the details as secret as possible, Boeing has filed for a request for confidentiality with the FCC. They have developed a top-secret phone that is designed to self-destruct when tampered with. Equipped with HDMI, USB, Wi-Fi and Blutooth, the dual-SIM phone is set to support LTE, GSM and WCDMA using MicroSIM cards.

Boeing's smartphone reserved for government agents

The phone, not to be sold to the general public, will instead be reserved for homeland security and other government agents. If communication were to go down for one reason or another, federal agents may have the technology to keep conversing on their private network.

Boeing wrote, "the 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."

Boeing also requires agents to sign a purchase agreement when buying the phone, which protects Boeing's proprietary design of the phone, its hardware and its function. Boeing wrote that the signed agreement "specifically designates and protects as 'proprietary information' the components, hardware, Product Software, applications, functionalities, or internal structure or workings of the Product provided by Seller, including without limitation those that can be obtained by disassembling or opening the Product or its software or components."

With its high, military-grade security, the phone is estimated to cost between $15,000 and $20,000 apiece. It looks like taxes may be going up -- just to give government its own special phones.

Boeing's new phone self-destructs when tampered with

The purchase agreement also states that the phone would self-destruct if someone were to attempt to replace or service any of its parts. Sealed with an epoxy coating and a military-grade casing, the black phone is covered in a tamper proof assembly that is nearly impossible to break into -- and if someone were to try, the phone would be immediately disabled.

Boeing states clearly, "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."

Presales announced for new commercially available, high-security Blackphone

For those who aren't agents of the government, a new, black, high-security phone may be your most secure communication option. A secure, commercially available phone called the "Blackphone" was introduced at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona in late February. The project, spearheaded by Spanish startup business Geeksphone and security firm Silent Circle, has announced plans to release their own high-security version of the smartphone, which is set to cost consumers $629.

The phone's operating system is Android based -- PrivatOS. Pre-installed on the device will be multiple security apps designed to protect the user with anonymous search functions, private calling, smart Wi-Fi disabling, anonymous anti-theft and remote wiping features.

This phone may be the answer for consumers, executives and public figures who don't want the NSA or other hackers waltzing in on their private information.

Details and presale information on the commercially available Blackphone is available here.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.theregister.co.uk

https://apps.fcc.gov

http://www.myce.com

http://www.androidpit.com