Encrypting business

A Polish-made, self-encrypting cell phone is being marketed to businesspeople

Warsaw-based TechLab 2000, a research and development company specializing in communication security, last week introduced a self-encrypting cell-phone – the Xaos Gamma. The phone was developed by Polish engineers and is manufactured in Poland, although its casing is licensed from Finnish firm Benefon.

The encryption of personal telephone calls is not forbidden by Polish law. TechLab 2000, which has previously provided encrypting solutions for the Polish secret services (UOP), designed its latest product with business users in mind this time, rather than special operations.

“With this product our company is targeting businessmen, lawyers, even politicians, that appreciate confidentiality when talking about strategies, contracts or new ideas,” said Jan Szczyrek, a member of the board at TechLab 2000.

“The application used is our own and not adopted from existing solutions … Another difference from the competition is the hard-to-break encryption solution itself. The key which could help decrypt the call self-destructs after the caller hangs up. The time [required] to initiate an encrypted call is just one and a half seconds, which is 10 times faster than Germany’s Kryptofon, for example. The voice delay is shorter than half a second,” listed Tomasz Borkowski, another member of TechLab 2000’s board. Both he and Szczyrek personally worked on the Xaos Gamma.

The quad-band Xaos Gamma is available to corporate customers at Orange e-stores, starting at zł.849, depending on the subscription plan. “We have cooperated with Orange on our previous projects, such as wireless modems, hence our choice of this operator,” said Szczyrek.

The companies have set a sales target of at least 5,000 phones this year, and don’t exclude the possibility of making it available to individual clients.

Marcin Poznań