Super Secure Smartphones

Everyone carries gigabytes of personal data with them on their smartphones and tablets. If this information falls in the wrong hands, it can be detrimental. It’s therefore essential to safeguard information on smartphones. Currently, most smartphone Operating Systems provide some basic level of protection, which should be sufficient for most consumers.

But what about more high-profile executives, like very senior officials in govt. and defense, or CEOs of multi-billion dollar conglomerates? Such security measures won’t be sufficient for them. Let’s look at what sort of security is available for ordinary consumers and high-profile executives.

Smartphone Security for Consumers

Android OS Security: Android phone users can get some peace of mind by simply tweaking some of their phone’s settings. Tap on Encrypt phone under Encryption in Security menu. This will encrypt your application data, downloaded files, and everything else on the phone and will turn them into an unreadable twisted form. You must have a lock screen pin code set on your device as that pin will be required in setting up the encryption.

Another important thing you must know before encrypting your device is that the only way to undo the encryption is by factory resetting your Android device, so you all have to set it up from scratch.

iOS Security: Likewise, iOS users can set pass codes (simple or complex) to protect their data from breach and the device can wipe off all data if 10 unsuccessful attempts are made to unlock it. Apple products also have AES 256- bit crypto engine built in to encrypt all data on the device at all times.

If you are still among those paranoid smartphone users who want to go a step further with data protection then you have alternatives to regular smartphones that go beyond in terms of security. They provide a secure network for the calls you make, text messages you send and even take care of your web activity. Boeing Black and Blackphone from Geeksphone are two such products.

Blackphone by Geeksphone with SilentCircle apps ecosystem 

Blackphone is a joint effort by two technology firms known for their secure services in smartphone technology. The hardware is given by Geeksphone- a company founded in 2009 and known for its open Android smartphones.

Blackphone runs on a modified version of Android 4.4. Kitkat called Private OS designed by Silent Circle which is providing two-year subscription of its secure communication apps like Silent phone that encrypt the calls you make or receive, Silent text to encrypt your messages, SpiderOak that provides a secure cloud storage, private browsing and anonymous internet search so no commercial entity can track your activity on web and bombard you with advertisements.

Your contacts are also saved by an app called Silent contacts that safeguards them to be upload on any website’s database. The phone also enables a user to control the flow of data to and from the applications and services on the device and in case of theft, you can remotely wipe your data.

Blackphone is also not behind in the war of specifications with other smartphones present in the market. The 8.3mm thin phone has a 4.7 inch 720P screen, a quad-core 2GHz processor by NVIDIA, 1 GB RAM and 16 GB internal storage that is expandable up-to 128 GB. Blackphone is priced at $629. It is available in India with an additional 15 percent tax that would make it around Rs 45,000.

Boeing Black for Government agencies

Another phone which is the big brother in terms of data protection is manufactured by Boeing, the leader in aircraft manufacturing. Boeing Black is aimed to provide secure networks but only to government agencies and contractors related to defense. It is not available for citizens and even these agencies have to sign an agreement of confidentiality that restricts them to disclose any information related to the phone’s software or hardware. The

Android based phone follows highest security parameters with features like disc encryption to store sensitive data, a secure booting that checks the authenticity of system images on boot and above all an in-built self-destruct feature that deletes all the data on device and turns it into nothing but a paper-weight in case of any effort to open its frame.