Barcelona
UAE-headquartered security solutions provider DarkMatter has launched what it calls the world’s most secure communications suite on a smartphone, called Katim.
Katim in Arabic means silence.
Faisal Al Bannai, Founder and CEO of DarkMatter, said that the phone is designed to offer the highest level of protection against mobile attacks for users who have the most demanding security needs.
While smartphones have become a vital tool for business users and high-level officials, at the same time, he said that they also offer a vast attack surface for cybercriminals to gain access and compromise the sensitive information stored and consumed via these types of devices.
“The phone is targeted at the head of states, government entities and large corporations to protect their critical data and communion but not for consumers as data is the new currency,” he said. The phone will begin shipping to qualified customers in the fourth quarter of this year.
A company source said that the phone can cost from $1,000 to $13,000, depending on the features.
Al Bannai claims that none the phones in the market offer the kind of security his company provides. The four elements to Katim’s security are the Katim phone, Katim OS, Katim Secure communications application suite and Katim Cyber Command Centre.
The phone is powered by Qualcomm 821 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage capacity. It houses 12MP rear and 5MP front cameras.
The phone runs on Android 7 OS version but does not have access to the Google apps store. The device provides its own secure voice, video, news and messaging apps.
“The device does not have the stock Android. ... we take the OS and add more security features on top of it to safeguard against vulnerabilities, and features end-to-end data encryption and secure storage for keys. We have multiple layers of tamper proof right from the boot level,” he said.
According to intelligent managed services provider Luminet, 75 per cent of mobile apps would fail a basic security test, since the majority of smartphone apps do not have basic security protocols in place.
Al Bannai said that more secure apps will be added to its apps store down the road.
“We will be adding more features by the time of the launch,” he said.
