KoolSpan's microSD TrustChip keeps C out of your A + B conversation

Sure, we've seen cellphone encryption contraptions before, but KoolSpan's aiming to make things extra easy for green CIA agents. Set to be released next month, the microSD TrustChip slips right into a-many of smartphones and enables callers to hit up other undercover gurus and chat with 256-bit AES encryption, providing that the receiver of the call has a TrustChip jammed in his / her phone as well. Furthermore, the device itself touts enough features to make Maxwell Smart all sorts of envious: on-chip crypto processing, key management and a tamper-resistant environment for starters. Word on the street pegs this bad boy at $300, but we all know the cost of getting a call sniffed could be much more costly than that.

[Via GetFlashMemory]

[McYoda @ Jan 26th 2008 9:09PM]

That is glad we finally can have something keep the DHS away from our conversation.

[Randy @ Jan 26th 2008 9:24PM]

How do we know that this thing doesn't have a backdoor?

[mike @ Jan 26th 2008 11:00PM]

I can't wait for the chip that keeps "ya'll" and "yepers" out of our conversations.

[austin @ Jan 26th 2008 11:37PM]

i take offense to that. yall may not be common where you live but it is part of my vocabulary. yepers is a horrible world.

[majortom @ Jan 26th 2008 9:22PM]

there's no guarantee that the NSA is not listening in.....

[Exolon @ Jan 27th 2008 11:45AM]

Randy:

You certainly don't... or not necessarily a back-door, but it might have its cryptography or CPRNG deliberately weakened which is more subtly damaging.

[kakapo @ Jan 26th 2008 9:40PM]

Obviously, it has a direct connect to the DHS and anyone else who "needs" to listen. It wouldn't make it past the FCC without it. Otherwise, it would be sitting in a scrap heap somewhere. Maybe you can listen in on the conversations that are setting up the GAU... :-)

[Dave @ Jan 26th 2008 10:03PM]

aside from blowfish and PGP, i would assume that all of these have backdoors...until this supports one of the two formats I mentioned above, I will continue using IRC w/blowfish for all my sensitive convos

[dimitri_tsaf @ Jan 26th 2008 10:19PM]

i love when computer nerds think someone actually gives a shit about their trite conversations. no one cares, stupid

[aguiluz @ Jan 26th 2008 11:25PM]

I hope to find a PGP version on the black market. :)




(Jokes intended, not serious.)

[Daniel @ Jan 26th 2008 11:53PM]

kudos to dimitri for the most relevant comment in this entire thread.

[Daniel @ Jan 26th 2008 11:54PM]

which, by the way, is the first time I laughed out loud reading a comment. I remember all my buddies in college PGP'ing their e-mails and making a big deal about making their public key available. It was so fucking stupid.

[DarkLightConnection @ Jan 27th 2008 1:01AM]

Yeah, nice comment... but not always true though, there's people out there (nerds, not only entrepreneurs) with really important things to talk about (not including me... so MSN FTW!)

[Odimerus @ Jan 26th 2008 10:10PM]

This is an A + B + C + D + E conversation so get the F out

[Ellianth @ Jan 26th 2008 10:23PM]

Fine :'(

[3rdsun @ Jan 27th 2008 12:47PM]

what about G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z. Are they not included

[aguiluz @ Jan 26th 2008 11:21PM]

This is how you piss off the FBI.

[ClieOS @ Jan 26th 2008 11:29PM]

Green CIA agents? So they finally have enough money to pay for the phone bill?

[nuviNation @ Jan 26th 2008 11:55PM]

"This is an 'A' and 'B' conversation. So you better 'C' your way outta here before I get 'D' and 'E' to 'F' you up 'G'!"

[Bassir @ Jan 27th 2008 1:19AM]

Yeah, I wouldn't want people hearing me order Pizza.

[Richard @ Jan 27th 2008 5:51AM]

If kirk and Spock had these, then Kahn would have been clueless as to the condition of the enterprise in StarTrek 2.

[Fafnir_Lux @ Jan 27th 2008 9:38AM]

All things considered, Kahn was clueless to the condition of the Enterprise thanks to some clever phrases from Spock.

[Frankenstein Black @ Jan 27th 2008 6:27AM]

Yet another "fool's gold" product for, well, fools! Unless of course it says stuff like "made in Russia, not for sale in the US" or "KGB PGP Inside" which I'm sure it does not...

[dramamoose @ Jan 27th 2008 11:09AM]

But couldn't anyone with a crypto chip listen in as well? Maybe not, depending on the thing's architecture. I'd assume they'd have to have public keys, and maybe they could transfer those during the voice communication. Anywhom, it's not very likely the people I talk to on a regular basis would have one of these things. Otherwise, it'd be great.