Just curious: Can the features of blackphone be emulated on a regular Android phone?

rodney0905

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Pocketnow posted a pretty interesting read on Blackphone. I did some searching but can't seem to find anything. The article does talk about how Android may already have some of security features of Blackphone but I found no direction on how one would go about securing an Android phone to copy the other features. I just thought this thread might serve as a place for discussion on how to emulate these security features.

10 ways Blackphone keeps you secure | Pocketnow

A summary of the post: It goes through how each bullet point below is more secure than a regular phone.
1. Screen lock
2. Whole phone encryption
3. Cloud storage
4. Smarter wifi
5. VPN
6. Remote wipe
7. App Security
8. Secure contacts
9. Secure textings
10. Secure calling
 

cpaight

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1. Settings/Security/Screen lock.... choose a pin, pattern or password
2. Also in the security menu
3. Drive, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive....take your pick
4. Not sure what that means
5. There's a number of them you can subscribe to...here for instance: https://stacksocial.com/sales/vpn-u...ears-of-hacker-protection-more?aid=a-qdg54o31
6. Android Device Manager
7. Google scans apps in the Play Store, just be smart about what you install especially if it's from outside the Play Store
8-10. I'm guessing this is referring to some type of proprietary encryption
 

rodney0905

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The article provides a description about Blackphone's smart wifi, secure calling, and other security features. I don't need the security, just thought this thread could help others find out more about it.

3. I think some have taken issue with the lack of cloud store security. Blackphone has a feature that supposedly makes cloud storage a little more secure.
4. From the article:

Did you know that if you leave your Wi-Fi turned on that you’re feely giving away a uniquely identifying piece of information, and your general location? Yup. Your Wi-Fi radio identifies itself with something called a MAC address, and every wireless access point in the world is actively “listening” for devices to come into range. Most WAPs use that information for what it’s original intent: allowing access via the wireless network. Others, however, are being used to log the MAC address, date, time, and other information of all devices within their reach.

To be clear, not every WAP does this, but as more distributed “hotspot” networks are deployed, many are seeing this as yet another way to sell your information to interested parties.

Smarter Wi-Fi Manager is built into Blackphone and helps to reduce this from happening. Using the IDs of nearby cell towers, this app will either toggle your Wi-Fi on, or off. If you’re near a trusted WAP (one that you’ve connected to before), your Wi-Fi will automatically be turned on when you’re near it, allowing the network to automatically connect. When you leave the area your Wi-Fi is automatically turned off.

In addition to keeping your private information safe from snooping WAPs, this can help with your battery life

8. The article says that Blackphone's contacts app operates as normal but under encryption and password.
9. Jabber is used as the protocol for secure messaging.
10. They are using a "secure" VOIP system.

Thanks for your input. Hoping others can provide more insight than I can on how to implement some of these features in Android.
 

cpaight

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Lots of good info. Black Phone is a bit of overkill on security for me but I can certainly see the benefits. I am looking into possibly trying out the VPN though.
 

Rukbat

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3. I think some have taken issue with the lack of cloud store security. Blackphone has a feature that supposedly makes cloud storage a little more secure.
That depends on the cloud server you're using. Some are more secure than others. Encrypting the data - on the phone - before uploading it to a cloud server increases security and can be done on any phone.

Did you know that if you leave your Wi-Fi turned on that you’re feely giving away a uniquely identifying piece of information, and your general location? Yup. Your Wi-Fi radio identifies itself with something called a MAC address, and every wireless access point in the world is actively “listening” for devices to come into range. Most WAPs use that information for what it’s original intent: allowing access via the wireless network. Others, however, are being used to log the MAC address, date, time, and other information of all devices within their reach.
Pry-Fi. It can be set to change your "MAC address" every time your wifi transmits when it's not connected. (It uses a make-believe address which not only makes you anonymous, it drives some software used to track phones crazy.) (It can't change MAC address while it's connected or it'll break the connection, but cellphones are tracked during the "non-connected" phase.)

Red Phone provides secure phone calls. Text Secure gives you secure texting. Any app using (or that can make use of) PGP will be secure (until the government forces the developers to include a back door into PGP).

8. The article says that Blackphone's contacts app operates as normal but under encryption and password.
You can encrypt and password protect any app in Android.

9. Jabber is used as the protocol for secure messaging.
Jabber is no more secure than any other chat protocol, it's just different, so anyone who wants to "listen in" has to download a Jabber app. (Put "Jabber" into the Play Store search and you'll find about 150 free apps.) FireChat gives you more security for short distance chatting. Almost any Bluetooth or direct Wifi chat app gives you a lot more security than chatting over a server (which Jabber does).

10. They are using a "secure" VOIP system.
That would depend on your VoIP provider. Some use secure apps, some don't. Blackphone can't supply an app that's secure for all VoIP providers.

You can make an Android phone as secure as you want it to be, but remember that each level of security that you add adds a level of inconvenience. If you use the same easy to remember password for everything, the phone's not really secure. If you use a different military grade password (20 mixed upper/lower/numeric/special characters) password for each one, and don't have a photographic memory, your phone is almost useless.

But I'd rather choose the security I use for each function (I'm not too concerned with whether someone gets my contact list or my shopping list) than pay a lot more for a phone that gives me "security" I'd probably replace with better security anyway.
 

rodney0905

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Rukbat, you provided a ton of good information. Thanks for the great explanations about many of these things. That's what I was hoping someone would be able to do.

Sent from my LG-D851 using AC Forums mobile app
 

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