The Blackphone 2, from security firm Silent Circle, builds on the basic Android operating system to improve user security.
For more and more businesses in the UK, company mobiles are becoming the norm. While company mobiles have many strengths – including freedom for employees to be contactable while on the move – security can be a real worry. The Blackphone 2 aims to quell those worries, with a range of security features not found on ordinary smartphones and devices.
The most ingenious feature is the Spaces feature, which allows the creation of individual virtual phones within the Blackphone 2. This means data kept in one ‘phone’, or space, is entirely separate from the data in another space. Therefore if a malicious file is received in one space, the other spaces on the phone are not affected. This feature may be ideal for users who need to keep their personal and business lives separate, while keeping to one device.
The Blackphone Security Centre allows users to control basic privacy settings such as passwords and timeouts, as well as manage individual app permissions and manage spaces. Messaging, calls and videos between Blackphone users are encrypted end to end; and partway encrypted when talking to other devices, and the Blackphone 2 even goes as far as to improve Wi-Fi security.
As well as security features built into the phone, the Blackphone’s Silent Store provides a selection of verified secure and private applications for users in addition to the regular Google Play Store. The phone also comes with a promise – to patch critical vulnerabilities within 72 hours of detection or reporting.
All this comes at a price however – £525 per phone. They say the price of safety can never be too high, but safe to say businesses may want to consider cheaper options before shelling out.