Is the world ready to see a self-destructive spy-smartphone?
BlackBerry confirmed the news that they are collaborating with plane manufacturing firm Boeing to come up with a self-destructing, secretive smartphone that will be used by the defense and homeland security staff of the United States.
"We're pleased to announce that Boeing is collaborating with BlackBerry to provide a secure mobile solution for Android devices utilizing our BES12 platform," shared BlackBerry CEO John Chen.
The device, which is called the Boeing Black, will be on a self-destruct mode when it will be forced to be tampered.
Yet this device will not blow up or burst into flames when tampered, contrary to what spy phones look like in films or TV series. The phone will instead wipe all the internal data automatically if it is meddled with.
According to the FCC filing for the device, "Any attempt to break open the casing of the device would trigger functions that would delete the data and software contained within the device and make the device inoperable."
The filing also mentioned that "The Boeing Black phone is manufactured as a sealed device both with epoxy around the casing and with screws, the heads of which are covered with tamper proof covering to identify attempted disassembly."
The so-called self-destructing smartphone will also feature a dual SIMs slot, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivities, as well as USB and HDMI connection.
And since this is a security-tight device, Boeing counsel Bruce Olcott wrote a letter to the Federal Communications Commission back in February 24 to request that the confidential design must be kept a secret from the press.
Boeing also wants to sell the device to "approved" customers only, which means that the public will never see it in stores.
Those who will be able to obtain the product will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement to keep the details of the phone from being leaked to the public.
Though the phone will be co-developed by the Canadian-based mobile manufacturer that has its own BlackBerry operating system, the Boeing Black will run using a secure version of Android OS.
