BlackPhone maker Silent Circle announces $50 million in funding

[silicon_toad2000]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/02/blackphone-maker-silent-circle-announces-50-million-in-funding/

The cash infusion and the push for encrypted communications are in part a direct result of National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations about massive government surveillance.

'"I'm pleased to be part of the incredible growth of Silent Circle and to see our capabilities and opportunities rise alongside of the growing recognition of the importance of privacy in the modern enterprise," said Ross Perot Jr., an early investor in SPG Technologies, the name of the joint venture between Silent Circle and Geeskphone.

In our review last year, we described the BlackPhone—which runs a custom OS called PrivatOS—as "Android for the paranoid," saying:

    We found that the BlackPhone lives up to its privacy hype. During our testing in a number of scenarios, there was little if any data leakage that would give any third-party observer anything usable in terms of private information.

    As far as its functionality as a consumer device goes, BlackPhone still has a few rough edges.

The buyout announcement comes as the need for secure mobile communications was highlighted after the Snowden disclosure a week ago that governments may have breached the encryption on Gemalto's SIM cards.

The BlackPhone, however, wasn't without its own security issues, too.

A recently fixed vulnerability disclosed last month in the BlackPhone instant messaging application gave attackers the ability to decrypt messages, steal contacts, and control vital functions of the device.

Silent Circle made news in 2013 when it shuttered its secure e-mail service amid fears that the metadata of encrypted e-mail could be scooped up by the NSA.