Silent Circle plots BlackBerry’s demise

Co-founder Mike Janke says Silent Circle could soon overtake BlackBerry.

The federal government is watching our every move online but is skirting its own data retention laws by buying secure, encrypted smartphones that ensure its communications remain secret.

“Your government is a customer of ours. They buy a lot of Blackphones and our software,” Mike Janke, one of the co-founders of secure smartphone maker Silent Circle, told The Australian.

“There’s a reason why your government buys it, why your military buys it, why 36 countries buy it.”

The reason is simple: privacy. Governments, corporations and even privacy focused individuals around the globe are flocking to the smartphone maker to protect themselves from prying eyes.

“Eighty-five per cent of our business is with corporations and government. We’re in 42 of the Fortune 50,” Mr Janke said.

Unsurprisingly, he is not a fan of Australia’s data retention laws.

“I think it’s a bad, bad thing … You may have Turnbull’s administration now, but what about in five or 10 years, if you have someone elected with the sensibilities of Putin,” he said. “And all that data is available to use for other purposes. Any time there’s data retention by a corporation, a telco, or a government, it’s a perfect tool for hackers.”

But for now, the increased focus on data collection by authorities across the globe is working in favour of Silent Circle and its product, Blackphone.

In Britain, where the government has just unveiled online surveillance laws, the phone sold out within six hours of launching in September.

According to Mr Janke, the Blackphone is the most secure smartphone on the market and it appears that Silent Circle’s keenest rival BlackBerry, a long-time favourite among the security conscious, agrees.

“The (only) other phone that can claim that their security is better than us is the Blackphone,” BlackBerry CEO John Chen said at a conference last month.

A former Navy SEAL commando, Mr Janke founded Switzerland-based Silent Circle in 2012 alongside world-renowned cryp­to­graphers Phil Zimmerman and Jon Callas in response to the online privacy debate and concerns about security gaps in communication devices and apps.

The appeal of the Blackphone 2 is that while it looks like any other smartphone, the user has complete control over data. All calls, texts, documents and video chats are encrypted and the data isn’t stored anywhere.

The phone runs a modified version of Android, so while common apps can be used, the advanced security features provide a level of privacy absent from other handsets.

Silent Circle’s immediate focus is to make the most of the Blackphone’s momentum and in time make life decidedly uncomfortable for BlackBerry.

“In enterprise, we’re replacing BlackBerry faster than we can produce phones,” Mr Janke said. “There are government agencies in 11 countries that have a program in place to replace BlackBerry with Blackphone.”

Indeed, based on current sales, Silent Circle believes it will overtake BlackBerry before too long.

“We’ll get larger than BlackBerry, at this pace, pretty quickly — within 12 to 18 months,” Mr Janke told The Australian.

Even with BlackBerry launching its latest smartphone, the Priv, in which the smartphone pioneer finally embraces Android, the Blackphone looks like it is here to stay.

Despite the Priv’s slide-out physical keyboard, long battery life and the focus on privacy, Mr Janke is unperturbed by the competition.

He said BlackBerry was playing catch-up on security.

“They do a different style and I would say the way they do security is very much like it was done in 2007,” he said.

The Blackphone has been so well received that Silent Circle is now looking at launching other devices with similar security ­features.

“I see us becoming a firm that continues to grow to a point where you see multiple Blackphone devices,” Mr Janke said.

A secure tablet is currently in the works, and a laptop may follow in due course.