HTC builds encrypted phones for National Security Bureau
2015/10/25 17:05:02
The HTC encrypted phone. (CNA file photo)
Taipei, Oct. 25 (CNA) HTC Corp. (宏達電) has teamed up with the National Security Bureau (NSB, 國安局) to produce encrypted phones that ensure the communications of high-ranking officials are protected from spy agencies.
NSB Director-General Yang Kuo-chiang (楊國強) said in his report to the Legislature's Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Oct. 22 the encrypted HTC phones have been used by the president, vice president and senior officials at national security and military agencies since April.
The third-generation encrypted phone looks similar to the HTC Butterfly flagship handset but runs an NSB-designed encrypted chip, with the phone's GPS function removed to avoid being tracked by China's homegrown BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), Yang said.
"Our encrypted phone is definitely secure," Yang said in response to some lawmakers' concerns that China can monitor mobile phones in Taiwan through apps connected to BeiDou.
The NSB partnered with Taiwan PC maker Asustek Computer Inc. (華碩) to build the first-generation encrypted phone, while it worked with Acer Inc. (宏碁) on the second-generation model.
China's BeiDou was rolled out in 2012, joining the U.S.'s GPS, Russia's GLONASS and the European Union's Galileo. It is currently centered on the Asia-Pacific region and is slated to cover the world by 2020.
BeiDou is used for navigation, messaging and weather forecasting, but it also has military applications.
(By Lu Hsin-hui and Jeffrey Wu)
