CryptoPhone Use Rocketed

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Regardless of the price tag, the makers of cryptophones are obviously flourishing from providing services that allow to make it impossible for the National Security Agency spooks to decode your calls. Mobile security experts point out that, for instance, the GSMK CryptoPhone is a bright example of what is going on in the industry.

The developers explain that the CryptoPhone is based on Samsung’s Galaxy S3 handset with an extra Android ROM which allows encrypted calls, disables location tracking, and provides zero-knowledge encryption keys that won’t ever leave the device. This device will cost you $3,500, including 2 years of secure service.

The makers of GSMK CryptoPhones were among the first businesses to take advantage of the fact that the CPU performance of mobiles was sufficient enough to provide strong real-time voice encryption. For example, the company offers such feature as Zero-Knowledge. Its solutions are absolutely anonymous, and nobody, including the company selling the device and providing the service, will know who is using it. In addition, the CryptoPhone generates unique keys from static noise, which never leave the device and can’t be accessed by either the company or the user, thus making it impossible to share them.

Edward Snowden is recognized as the phones most successful marketer: after he started leaking NSA files in 2013, GSMK’s sales boomed. At the moment, there are over 100,000 CryptoPhones in use – hopefully, not all of them are used by murders and terrorists.

Aside from just the phones, the company can also offer satellite, landline, and PBX, all interconnected – this can provide full security at corporate level. Of course, this can be a perfect choice for anyone who doesn’t want government listening in on their calls, but not all of them are innocent companies that just try to protect themselves. Obtaining a satellite link, terrorists also have the perfect method to organize a raid from across the world with nobody finding out about it.

Posted by: oziman

Date: Thursday, April 10th, 2014

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Are You Still Using Windows XP?
Added: Friday, April 11th, 2014

You should know that Microsoft has finally given up on its most successful product and announced that it won’t support Windows XP any more. In other words, millions of computers all over the world are now at risk from security threats, but the software giant failed to persuade people to switch to another operating system. According to the latest statistics, almost 25% of the world’s machines still run XP.



Of course, it has been a pretty long run. Windows XP was released in the mid-2001 and its development was started in the late 1990s. Its prototype code was codenamed “Neptune” and built on the Windows NT kernel, intended for consumers. In the meantime, an updated version of Windows 2000 was also initially planned for the business market. In the early 2000, both of these projects were shelved in favor of a single operating system nickenamed “Whistler”, which could be used in both business and consumer environments.

The new OS introduced a considerably redesigned graphical user interface and became the first version of Windows which used product activation in an effort to reduce software piracy. Despite this feature, XP was pirated to oblivion, so you can see how that worked out.

Windows XP proved to be extremely popular among users: by January 2006, more than 400 million copies were in use. XP remained the most widely used OS until August 2012, when Windows 7 overtook it.

The much-extended deadline fell on the same day as Patch Tuesday, giving Microsoft a chance to release updates for the platform. But after the April, 8 no more updates for machines without custom support are released. The exceptions are the UK government, which has paid Microsoft £5.5 million to keep public sector entities covered, and the Dutch government. For everyone else it will be a great time to target machines running on Windows XP, because there is no protection short of virus checkers anymore.

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New Season of Game of Thrones Is Pirated to Oblivion
Added: Friday, April 11th, 2014

The premiere of Game of Thrones’ new season has set a new piracy record: over a million downloads in half a day. After people from all over the globe downloaded a copy, next morning there were more than 300,000 BitTorrent users sharing the new episode simultaneously – both on legal and less-authorized channels.

Such a demand even caused a technical trouble for the HBO Go service – it crashed and was inaccessible for a few hours. This downtime could be the reason for some to look for illegal copies. Those, of course, were widely available via dozens of torrent websites soon after the episode finished. Unlike HBO Go, downloads via BitTorrent finish faster if there is an increased interest. And there was, indeed!

Half a day after the new episode appeared on the Internet, more than a million people have already downloaded a copy via a torrent tracker. Next morning over 300,000 people were seen actively sharing it.

According to the statistics, the number of downloads is close to the same as in 2013, but it didn’t set a record for the largest BitTorrent swarm. Perhaps, this is because there were multiple copies available, with the most shared one having about 140,000 people sharing at once. As usual, the number of downloads is expected to increase: in 2013, Game of Thrones was recognized as the most pirated TV show for the 2nd time, and now it is well on its way to securing the title for one more year.

It looks like the most file-sharers origin from Australia (11.6%). It is followed by the US (9.3%) and the UK (5.8%) – all English-speaking countries, as you can see. In a week, when the episode is translated and dubbed in other countries, the numbers might change.

In the meantime, Australia with its first place is all the more impressive with its population of only 22 million people – relatively small compared to the other 2 countries. The main question, as usual, would be why people choose illegal version. And the answers are all the same: sometimes there’s no legitimate alternative, due to licensing or technical troubles like those suffered yesterday by HBO Go. Sometimes, the legal options are too limited, restrictive, or just expensive. In addition, for some people using BitTorrent has become a habit, despite having the legal alternatives.

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Huawei CEO claimed that 2013 Snowden revelations about the extent of the government surveillance have been both good and bad for businesses all over the world. Although the news didn’t have a big impact on Huawei’s growth, it did influence the relationships with the potential partners.

The founders of the Chinese network and handset supplier include a former member of the Chinese Red Army. That’s why the company has been banned from network contracts in both the United States and Australia. American politicians are afraid that the systems Huawei provides could have “backdoors” making them vulnerable to state-run hackers.However, it turned out that the NSA itself had stolen part of Huawei’s code used to control its exchanges. This instantly made the Chinese giant look like the victim rather than a malicious player. Even remaining outside the huge US market, Huawei is the 2nd biggest supplier of network systems in the world, following Ericsson and ahead of Nokia Siemens Networks.Within the last year, Huawei’s revenues in the Americas fell by 1%, and it is the only geographic area where its revenues saw a decrease. In 2013, Huawei became the 3rd largest supplier of smartphones (the leaders, as you may have guessed, are Samsung and Apple). Now the company is focused on contracts to install 4G networks all over the world. Huawei claims to power over 2/3 of the 4G networks in place worldwide, being used by the British EE network along with NSN, and having won the contract to build out the 4G network for the largest carrier ever – China Mobile.However, the security concerns have dogged Huawei as it has expanded abroad and started working significant contracts. For example, its first key foreign contract was with BT to provide a fixed-line network. This deal resulted in the calls for the source code to be reviewed for backdoors in 2013, although it had already been done ahead of the contract win.The company believes that it was important for the industry to agree on standards for security. It seems to be so important for the industry that it has even paid for The Guardian reporters’ trip to China to deliver this message. The reporters promised to remain unbiased and confirmed that such standards would become even more important as networks turn into “software-defined networks” due to technical reasons.