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secure phantom

If you lot've purchased a smartphone in the final several years, it's nigh likely encrypted past default to protect your data. Canada-based Phantom Secure went a pace further with its customized, ultra-secure Blackberry and Samsung smartphones. Now, the visitor's CEO Vincent Ramos is behind confined, accused of facilitating criminal activeness by tailoring those devices to suit the likes of drug cartels and gangs.

According to the FBI complaint, Phantom Secure wasn't just making secure smartphones. The company's management allegedly knew its phones were purchased primarily by criminals, and it actually designed features with that in mind. The FBI cites the notoriously violent Sinaloa drug dare as 1 of Phantom'due south best customers. Ramos is charged with racketeering, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, and aiding and abetting.

Phantom Secure goes to extremes to cater to the near paranoid smartphone users, with most of its sales coming from Mexico, Australia, Cuba, and Venezuela. Information technology doesn't build smartphones from the ground up, just rather modifies existing hardware to conform its needs. There's a BlackBerry version of the Phantom Secure platform based on the Assuming 9720, and an Android version based on the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. The latter comes with a keyboard zipper, but the BlackBerry has a built-in keyboard.

Phones purchased from Phantom Secure have no GPS, no camera, and no microphone — the company physically removes the hardware components. The software is also heavily modified to block access to the open cyberspace and regular messaging services. The only advice platform on Phantom Secure devices is a highly secure PGP-based system going through international servers. The company does not list prices online, so they're likely rather astronomical.

Key to the FBI'due south instance is the allegation that Phantom Secure is non simply making devices that criminals happen to buy. There are plenty of iPhones and Android devices in the pockets of criminals, afterwards all. Multiple undercover agents merits to have recorded Vincent Ramos proudly proclaiming that his company's phones were designed specifically to cater to drug smugglers. The government also points to at least one cooperating witness who used Phantom Secure devices as part of the Sinaloa cartel. Agents even purchased devices from Phantom while pretending to be drug traffickers, and asked questions near analogous drug buys via the phones. Phantom Secure didn't bat an heart.

Not everyone will be happy to come across the FBI take down Phantom Secure. The FBI has shown its distaste for the increasing employ of encrypted advice, and this could be seen as a glace gradient.