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- ?Merkels Handy ist nach dem Stand der Technik abh�rsicher? � DiePresse.com
Secusmart-founder Christoph Erdmann explains why the sale of his company to Blackberry is not a security risk.
08.06.2014 | 18:29 | From Helmar Dumbs (The Press)
The Press: The German government is selling Secusmart to BlackBerry check. Can you understand the security concerns?
Christoph Erdmann: The fact that this sale checks is quite normal. We knew well in advance that the Ministry of Economic Affairs will consider the sale of a company like ours to foreign countries. Whether there are security concerns, it will turn out, from our point of view I can understand the concerns but not.
Above all, it's all about the fear that sensitive data might be passed. After all, the buyer Blackberry is a Canadian company, and Canada is part of the spy network of the "five eyes".
For this purpose, one needs to understand how this phone we have delivered to the German authorities, works, particularly with respect to the encryption. There is already today a cooperation of Secusmart with BlackBerry. The hardware and the operating system, the mobile platform will be powered by BlackBerry, we bring the application and corresponding server systems, which we integrate it with encryption.
However, the encryption chip itself comes from the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), so by the customer directly. The government is therefore responsible for the encryption itself, and neither we nor Blackberry know the key and thus the secrets of the client. The chip remains in the hands of end users.
Sounds as if nothing would change by selling to BlackBerry?
Because nothing will change purely for the customer. The product will remain as it is.
How eavesdropping technology of Secusmart actually is? Is it not the case that any encryption can be cracked somehow, the only question is how fast?
In the present state of the art that is eavesdropping, which are standardized cryptosystems that are secure against all known vulnerabilities.
Who is responsible if it is still bugged?
This is so to an approved product, which was evaluated by BSI. So it gets at all the permit to be used for classified can, one needs only once this approval. Under this procedure, both BlackBerry and we, the Federal Office for Security in Information Technology in our code could look into it. The BSI is therefore always in the same boat.
Where there are still weaknesses of this technology? What about if from a secure phone is a non-secure call? So if Merkel was calling me?
If I do not have a secure phone, then I'm obviously vulnerable. But the monitoring target is usually always the VIP and not necessarily the people who like that person all day.
How many of these phones are the German Government and other authorities in circulation?
These figures are indeed public, which is about 2500.
Do you ship to foreign governments?
Yes, but on the customer I can tell you anything concrete. One, which we may call, the NATO headquarters.
Who buys except politicians and authorities still such safety cell phones?
The overwhelming majority are government customers. But there are also international corporations that are interested in it. Nevertheless, it must be said that the economy is hesitant in applying this technology, there are only a few companies that make a point there. In view of the threat is little.
*
Do you after the news of the NSA affair feels a boom?
This has caused increased demand. Sales have increased, but not so excessive as one might think. It is not that suddenly everyone knows the danger and so would like to have a device. At the end of it remains in the debate on IT security often in speeches. Very few are actually willing to invest there.
How much does such a device?
Pro device You must accept Euro 2000 in the hand.
How would you convince me as a private customer, you buy out one?
Probably not. I would tell you. You wait a little longer, we bring a large German operator (Vodafone), a variant on the market, which is slightly less expensive and much less expensive. The whole is called Secure Call and should cost about 15 euros a month. It simply does not make sense, go off with the technology for the government telephones to private customers.
Is the interest in secure smartphones by the NSA affair because was also higher in individuals?
Yes, absolutely. We also have many small customers, and that these inquiries have shown us that we really need another product there. For the variant that we have delivered to the government, you must install an IT infrastructure at the customer even now. Since conditions are often necessary, so just do not have a retail client. They operate also no private telephone server system, right? Such a component that sits in your system and turn on your calls are routed, but you need then. This is just too difficult for overweight individuals.
How is BlackBerry integrate Secusmart technology into their own device / service? What is there plans?
Our technology is already largely integrated in BlackBerry. BlackBerry Government wishes to supply customers with our model world. But we can not reach these customers alone, such as the BlackBerry can. But in the end the customer itself determines the cryptography, it provides us with the chip. The modular concept, which ensures that the secrets are always in the customer's hand remains.
Contributors: Sara Grasel...08-09-14 11:06 AMLike 15 - Anecdotal, but nice to see the Z3 is still getting some pretty good reviews in India.
BlackBerry Z3 review: The Best Android Substitute | TechOne308-09-14 06:12 PMLike 12 - hey @Blackphone_ch look, adb enabled without unlocking your bootloader
Props to @TeamAndIRC
Edit: Just noticed it has already been posted in CB. Sorry!
http://forums.crackberry.com/android...inutes-951479/08-09-14 07:28 PMLike 12 - https://twitter.com/TeamAndIRC/statu...501824/photo/1
Props to @TeamAndIRC
Edit: Just noticed it has already been posted in CB. Sorry!
http://forums.crackberry.com/android...inutes-951479/
I think Chen needs to reply in the form of a BlackBerry fact check to that smart a** CEO of black phone.
Posted via CB1008-09-14 07:55 PMLike 14 - Along the security line think...Black Hat this week...guess what's on the menu:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2...-hat/13709219/
Eazzy Peazzy08-09-14 08:05 PMLike 8 - Along the security line think...Black Hat this week...guess what's on the menu:
Security experts take aim at the Internet of (unsafe) Things
Eazzy Peazzy
Security experts take aim at the Internet of (unsafe) Things08-09-14 08:48 PMLike 6 - Wonder how long it will take for some azz munch app that controls your thermostat/ toaster/ fridge...whatever...to ask for permissions to have access to your home wifi, camera on computer, door access codes etc etc etc...just like android apps now??? Frick.me.com lol
Eazzy Peazzy08-09-14 09:16 PMLike 6 - https://twitter.com/TeamAndIRC/statu...501824/photo/1
Props to @TeamAndIRC
Edit: Just noticed it has already been posted in CB. Sorry!
http://forums.crackberry.com/android...inutes-951479/08-09-14 09:18 PMLike 4 - Wonder how long it will take for some azz munch app that controls your thermostat/ toaster/ fridge...whatever...to ask for permissions to have access to your home wifi, camera on computer, door access codes etc etc etc...just like android apps now??? Frick.me.com lol
Eazzy Peazzy
Posted via CB1008-09-14 09:27 PMLike 4 - Quinn: John Chen's plan to save BlackBerry - San Jose Mercury News
The corporate turnaround is an art form, not a science.
John Chen, the former chief executive of Sybase, is one of the tech industry's most successful turnaround artists. And he has taken on his biggest challenge yet, as chief executive of Waterloo, Canada-based BlackBerry.
I recently sat down with Chen, 59, who still lives in Pleasanton and who eight months ago took the helm of the iconic smartphone maker, to talk about turnarounds.
Silicon Valley has a predictable cycle: Companies experience periods of rapid growth and then, for most of them, a maturation period of flatter growth. For others, contracting revenues can start a tailspin of contracting ambition. Not many survive as independent companies.
BlackBerry may not be a survivor. Even Chen compares BlackBerry to a patient in critical condition.
"The first thing you do is stabilization," he said, which means in business getting the financials in order. Then, "you examine what is driving you to disconnect with customers. If you weren't disconnecting from customers, then you wouldn't need me."
During the past five years, as smartphone growth has taken off worldwide, BlackBerry has lost substantial market share to rivals such as Samsung and Apple, even though Blackberry all but pioneered the market.
Its bread and butter -- selling to industries and governments that care about security -- is under constant threat from rivals, who are benefiting from the trend of employees having just one device for both work and personal use. A recent partnership announced between IBM and Apple will likely bring more iPhones and iPads into corporate markets.
BlackBerry has responded by slashing costs and laying off workers.
Born in Hong Kong, Chen emigrated to the U.S. with his family as a child. He says he is attracted to hard problems and sees his role as adding value.
The job of the turnaround CEO involves a careful balance between cutting costs, working to keep current customers and then finding something to sell that they want but don't even know they need yet, he said.
"Sometimes you don't know when you should quit trying something," he said. "You don't want to quit too early and you don't want to be too stupid so you are hitting your head against the wall and it doesn't yield."
In the past months, Chen has rebuilt BlackBerry's executive team mainly from people he worked with at Sybase.
How does he convince people to come work for him given the situation?
"I tell them, 'Everything is broken,' " he said. "BlackBerry is iconic. A lot of people have an opinion about it. A lot of people think it's dying, dead or should be. This is our chance to show they are wrong."
Even in crisis, he says he aims to be a low drama leader.
"In a turnaround, it is so hard to get good talent," he said. "If you have a reputation of disassembling a team and firing, no one will put their hearts into it."
With Sybase, Chen had some luck on his side. The company, struggling financially, missed out on the 1990s e-commerce boom. But with the dot-com bust, Sybase's workforce stabilized and Chen was in a financial position to start buying mobile firms that helped Sybase find its new growth market. In 2010, Chen sold the firm to the German firm SAP for $5.8 billion, about a 56 percent premium per share of the price the stock was trading at the time. BlackBerry might not get so lucky.
"He's a brave man to do it," said Ken Dulaney, an industry analyst at Gartner, who says there may be benefits in splitting up the company. "No one should criticize him if it doesn't work out."
"I don't envy the guy," said Mike Levin, partner and co-founder of Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, which pegs BlackBerry's U.S. consumer market penetration as rounding down to 0 percent. "Smartphones are more than a consumer product now. The challenge is going to be to find something distinctive that competitors don't have or won't be able to copy within a year."
For Chen, the question is whether he will have time to find BlackBerry's next thing.
Chen recently sent a memo to employees saying that the company's three-year restructuring process -- which involved shrinking the workforce 40 percent to 7,000 and selling off property -- was over, according to a recent Reuters article. The company would begin to hire and invest, he wrote.
For now, BlackBerry is focused on its core customers in government and industries like finance, banking and health care who value security and long battery life.
"My teenage daughter doesn't really care about those things but the National Security Agency cares, the Department of Defense cares," he said.
If he succeeds, consumers may one day look at BlackBerry as cool again, he said.
"I'll get BlackBerry to the point that my teenage daughter wants to do business with us."
Given his track record, I think he's got a shot.08-10-14 08:01 AMLike 10 -
- Blackphone gets rooted in under 5 minutes at BlackHat security conference
Blackphone gets rooted in under 5 minutes at BlackHat security conference08-10-14 10:32 AMLike 6 -
- At DEFCON...
DEFCON 22 Vendors
Billing itself as "the world's first smartphone to put privacy and control ahead of everything else" and celebrity endorsed by FOX News personality Sean Hannity, Blackphone is for sale on the floor -- cash only.
08-10-14 10:36 AMLike 7 -
- By the way, I may be slightly (!) paranoid, but I doubt the Blackphone's news will get much coverage. Nothing much to report so far, that is for sure. Somehow I doubt that would have been the case had the news concerned BlackBerry... I would hope to be proven wrong!08-10-14 10:49 AMLike 9
- BlackBerry partners with TRA to support the government mobile vision of the future
http://www.zawya.com/story/BlackBerr...0140810071343/
Posted via CB10
Partnership / customer? Better than IBM/apple BS IMO.
If this is the example of BlackBerry partnerships? Then very bright future for BlackBerry. It shows trust and commitment.
I wonder how much QNX/BB10 and passport has to do with it?
If dubai is on board, UAE usually follows.
Mind you that NA media/shorts will play it non event IMO.
Posted using Z30. Best of the best Smart phone in the world.08-10-14 11:15 AMLike 9
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