MobiWire unveils secure business phone portfolio with embedded mobile security

PARIS, FRANCE: MobiWire has unveiled a portfolio of secure business phones with embedded security for voice, SMS, data and on-device encryption. The secure voice phone and secure data smartphone are the first mobile devices to offer fully integrated protection against stolen terminals, eavesdropping of voice and SMS, and data theft through attacks via WiFi and Bluetooth.

The secure data smartphone will be the first AndroidTM mobile phone in the world to offer strong security across every kind of communication. The secure phone solution has been co-developed with secure communications specialists ERCOM following a strategic partnership announced in December 2010.

Targeted at corporations and government organisations, these devices are part of a full security solution that provides secure data access to corporate servers, including email, intranet and file servers. A “Trusted Market” on-device app store replaces the public AndroidTM Market store with a secure and private market of trusted applications certified and approved by an enterprises corporate IT team. The secure communications are fully controlled, hosted and administered by the customer’s own IT department.

“Mobile security is a recurring, and ever increasing, concern for businesses and government organisations. However, while mobile data security has become mass market thanks to mobile email, voice and SMS have remained vulnerable to eavesdropping,” said Frederic Farago, VP Connected Industrial Applications at MobiWire. “The ‘keys’ to the security solution have to lie with the IT department, not with a vendor or service provider. By designing and building in security, the new MobiWire secure phones provide a fully secure corporate communication system that is 100 per cent controlled by the IT department.”

The S:PHONE devices are based on the CryptosmartTM embedded security engine from ERCOM and MobiWire’s patented User Interface software, Core UX. The built-in security, which cannot be removed from the device or tampered with, offers deep security with its high grade encryption of local data and signature algorithms. The co-developed mobile security solution provides strong authentication and embedded Common Criteria certified security across multiple kinds of devices, all able to run within the same security group through a single secure gateway.

The Cryptosmart encryption engine is comprised of a Cryptosmart microSD (including both a crypto processor and Java applet), a Cryptosmart CardManager for PC, and a Cryptosmart Gateway that is hosted behind the corporate firewall. The Cryptosmart Gateway provides a secure interface with the corporate PBX system, intranet and mail servers and the private Trusted Market store of applications owned and trusted by the IT department.