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Boeing’s Black: This Android phone will self-destruct
- frik 13y agoexploding batteries, Mission Impossible style :D
- Create 13y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_787_Dreamliner_battery_problems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_787_Dreamliner_battery_... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_transfer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_transfer man event: http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/commercial/airports/faqs/airplane_lithium_ion_battery_events.pdf http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/commercial/airports/faqs/ai...
- rbanffy 13y agoIf I can't see what the phone is running, how sure can I be it'll not be used by a third party to spy on me? Boeing's promise?
- RyJones 13y agoHow do you ever trust any cell phone? The OS the consumer interacts with is the least interesting one on the phone as far as spying goes.
- maxerickson 13y agoYou think you are their target customer?
- dobbsbob 13y agoIt is spying. It's a defence contractor phone so probably everything done on it is recorded because governments spy on their employees. Baseband/GSM stack is likely wide open to exploitation by other governments.
- objclxt 13y ago> how sure can I be it'll not be used by a third party to spy on me? Boeing's promise? It's not really aimed at you, it's aimed at the US government....
- rbanffy 13y agoIf there is a backdoor, who says there is only one third party? Boeing's promise to third party #1?
- stusmall 13y agoI can think of some vendors who offer source sharing agreements on their closed products for auditing purposes. I'd speculate Boeing would offer the same if the contract is valuable enough, especially if its DoD writing the check.
- rbanffy 13y agoUnless you are given the full build chain and deploy to your own devices, there is little guarantee the software you were given is actually the one running on your devices.
- higherpurpose 13y agoIt's from a defense contractor, so it's probably not very good, yet extremely overpriced.
- w1ntermute 13y agoAnd yet the defense industry will purchase it in droves, thanks to the revolving door and all the special connections that Boeing has.
- rogerbinns 13y agoBoeing bought Narus in 2010 http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=20295&item=1294 http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=20295&item=1294 That same Narus was who enabled the NSA to illegally spy on telecoms last decade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A Would you trust a "secure" phone from people like that?
- kalleboo 13y agoGovernment agencies, like it says in the article.
- rjzzleep 13y agothe same narus that brought you narus insight which was an awesome piece of technology, and makes me wonder about the all the outrage we recently had. one might not like them, but it's one amazing tech company. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narus_(company) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narus_(company)
- joe_the_user 13y agoYour trust is probably irrelevant. This is the phone that the people who don't trust you, give to you.
- pokstad 13y agoThe phone isn't for normies like you and I. It's targeted specifically for people in the defense industry who have a need to connect to SIPRnet and other similar defense/government networks. People commenting here think they are prospective customers who will be spied on, but the truth is you will not be permitted to buy or use this phone.
- MichaelGG 13y agoAll phones should have this, just like modern laptops do (or are supposed to). All data should be encrypted, keys inside a tamper-proof chip. If anything has been changed (say, cover removed), then you need to enter the recovery key to certify the device is OK again. If tampering happens while device is active (say, it gets dropped hard enough to knock the cover off), then the device wipes RAM/powers off. My ThinkPad nominally offers this kind of protection.
- gaius 13y agoAnyone buying a phone from a company with links to the US military-industrial complex wants their heads examining. And that includes the US govt.
- alexeisadeski3 13y agoDon't VZW and ATT have links to the US mil-indz complex?
- furyg3 13y agoThis phone is for the US military-industrial complex to buy for their employees.
- raptormissle 13y agoYou realize that this phone is not for the public? right? right? right?
- dandelany 13y agoSaid complex is the intended market.
- arunbahl 13y agoAdditional details here: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/deep-black-more-details-on-boeings-new-secure-android-smartphone/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/deep-b...
- bjackman 13y agoTo be violently hyperbolic; besides impressing non-tech managers who've watched too many Nicholas Cage films, what the fuck is the point of this? If you have the money to commission a set of devices that self-destruct when tampered with, surely you can afford to have someone put together an Android build with encrypted data partitions?
- adrianbg 13y agohttp://www.howtogeek.com/141953/how-to-encrypt-your-android-phone-and-why-you-might-want-to/ http://www.howtogeek.com/141953/how-to-encrypt-your-android-...
- samplonius 13y agoBecause at the military level, all encryption is assumed to be compromised. Plus, it is assumed the phone may contain data of national value, so it assumed an adversary would spend unlimited resources to crack the encryption. For example, lets say "unlimited" is $100 million dollars. How many groups would spend $100 million to lets say, get details about the missile defense system in Taiwan? Plenty. As other posters have stated, this is not a phone for anyone but only very specific gov't employees.
- callesgg 13y agoI was expecting a small explosive charge in the battery or something cool. This was just lame.
- pokstad 13y agoNo one read the damn article. You will not be spied on while using this phone BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BUY THIS PHONE IN THE FIRST PLACE.
- jmnicolas 13y agoBut the people spying you will be using this phone.
- Kroem3r 13y agoWhy Boeing? Why not Motorola? It would seem to come more naturally to Moto; I mean if they built jetliners there would have been no reason to invent the phrase "jet lag".
- djyaz1200 13y agoCalled it (kinda) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7065897 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7065897 "...this idea seems like a solid game plan for Blackberry? They could rename their company "Black" ala P-Diddy v just Diddy. :)" Got the name right, wrong company. Nobody is perfect.