Looks like this is discover-the-BlackBerry week. Yesterday, we mentioned that PdaNet is supporting the BlackBerry after supporting many other platforms for a long, long time. Today, it’s Cellcrypt. Cellcrypt Mobile has been available for Nokia and Windows Mobile devices for a while, and now support for the BlackBerry is supposed to arrive by the end of June, says the PC World article:
Cellcrypt Mobile product is a downloadable, phone-based application that encrypts VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) calls all the way from one handset to the other. Unlike other cell encryption systems, it allows users to make calls pretty much as they would normally, and even to use international roaming, according to Ian Meakin, Cellcrypt’s vice president of marketing.
You probably think your BlackBerry is very secure. The email is, but the phone may not be. Every now and then, there is rumor that the GSM protocol has been broken and anyone skilled enough can eavesdrop on you if your life is interesting enough.
Cellcrypt avoids this airborne hacking as well as illicit tapping of the wired networks behind cellular base stations, according to Meakin.
Note that Meakin says that Cellcrypt avoids this airborne hacking as well as illicit tapping, so I suppose it won’t deter court-ordered or government tapping. Apart from that,
Cellcrypt avoids the traditional circuit-switched network altogether by using VoIP, and encrypts the VoIP packets with 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and 2048-bit Diffie-Hellman encryption. This encrypts the call all the way from one phone to the other, Meakin said. In addition to cell-to-cell calls, Cellcrypt can be used for calls to fixed-line phones, and the company also offers a gateway application for use with enterprise PBXs (private branch exchanges).
Although it uses VoIP, no dent should be made on carriers’ revenues because of Cellcrypt, since a license for one user costs about £2,500 (US$3,732) per year, though the price varies based on volume and other factors.
GK Not Registered
Posted: April 17, 2009 at 12:41 PM EST
This is very nice, but Skype VOIP is already encrypted (and a whole lot cheaper) and its encryption is at a very high level. I do not think that it has ever been broken.