Who's listening in?

By Alex Kayle, Senior portals journalist

Johannesburg, 21 May 2009

TriVest, a provider of equity for growth capital financings, is using the upcoming ITWeb Security Summit as a platform to roll out Secusmart's cellular device that encrypts mobile calls.

Secusmart is a mobile security company founded in Duesseldorf, Germany two years ago, and TriVest is its local distributor.

The product, branded as Secuvoice, consists of a microSD card that fits into the card slot of modern Nokia phones. It's based on crypto technology which enables users to make tap-proof mobile phone calls. In SA it will function through the GSM network and be available to all Vodacom and MTN subscribers.

Secusmart is a bronze sponsor of the Security Summit which will be held at Vodaworld in Midrand from 26 to 28 May. Andr'e St"urmer, TriVest operations director, says Secusmart is ideal for businesses dealing with large-scale business tenders, which demands confidential phone calls.

St"urmer says: “Corporate espionage is on the increase and this trend is similarly being felt in SA. We have listed potential markets that we believe the product will appeal to. Some of these markets include mining companies involved in large tenders as well as political parties and financial institutions.

Generating awareness

“The Security Summit is a great opportunity to get in contact with people to find out their views on security and to generate awareness about the product. We are hoping to identify other channels we should be pursuing in effectively going forward.”

Saskia Wagner, TriVest product advisor, says the normal encryption used on the GSM network was cracked years ago and cellphone calls are no longer 100% private or secure.

According to Wagner, growing trends show more phone calls are being intercepted. She points to the incident earlier this year where Somali pirates intercepted the rescue team's phone calls.

Intercepting calls

Wagner notes that criminals use interceptive technology which acts as a relay between the caller and the actual cellular tower. The call is intercepted before it even reaches the network. She says these devices, which are illegal in many countries, can easily be purchased over the Internet.

“Businesses are becoming more mobile. The cellphone is no longer a nice-to-have technology but has become a critical business tool. This product [Secuvoice] is very user-friendly and fits with a normal Nokia mobile phone and is not a big device that the user has to lug around,” says Wagner.

While companies understand the threats and security requirements around their computers, they often fail to realise that much of the same information can be gleaned off the cellphone, notes Wagner.