BlackBerry, Boeing Partner on Self-Destructing Phone

In a move that may remind some movie fans of a James Bond classic, beleaguered BlackBerry and aviation giant Boeing have teamed up on a self-destructing spy phone. The partnership aligns the nation’s second-largest U.S. defense contractor with Canada’s struggling smartphone maker in an initiative that targets the U.S. government and its contractors.

Specifically, BlackBerry is working with Boeing to develop the Boeing Black. Google’s Android operating system will power the device, which will reportedly self-destruct if anyone tampers with it. The Boeing Black also encrypts calls, which may be an attractive selling point in an age where corporations and government agencies are working to keep data and communications safe and secure .

"We're pleased to announce that Boeing is collaborating with BlackBerry to provide a secure mobile solution for Android devices utilizing our BES12 platform," BlackBerry CEO John Chen said on a conference call in which the company discussed its quarterly results. "That, by the way, is all they allow me to say."

How Secure is It?

Boeing is saying a little more to Bloomberg. Andy Lee, a Boeing spokesman, told paper the companies are “pursuing a number of opportunities” that would connect the Boeing Black with BlackBerry servers.

“Boeing has decades of experience providing defense and security customers with secure communications,” Lee told Bloomberg. “We are working with BlackBerry to help them ensure the BES12 operating system is compatible with, and optimized for use by, the ultra-secure mobile devices favored by the defense and security community.”

So just how secure is the Boeing Black? In a February 24 letter to the Federal Communications Commission, Boeing outside counsel Bruce Olcott said “any attempt to break open the casing of the device would trigger functions that would delete the data and software contained within the device and make the device inoperable,” according to the U.K. Mirror.

Secure Enough?

We turned to Roger Entner, a principal analyst at Recon Analytics, to get his thoughts on the BlackBerry-Boeing tie up on a phone that self destructs. He couldn’t help but quip, “It self-destructs like BlackBerrys market share.”

BlackBerry has lost massive momentum in the age of the iPhone and Android and Chen has desperately tried to turn the company’s fortunes. Entner is not so sure this Boeing Black is the path to success.

“If it doesn’t self-destruct on a physical level someone with enough time and effort can always break it,” Entner said. “It may take a really long time but you can break it.”

No matter how hardened the device is, Entner said the market for self-destructing phones is small. What’s more, the smartphone kill switch effectively accomplishes the same goal, at least in theory. Google, Microsoft and Apple are all on board with a kill switch that allows the owner to remotely disable the phone and erase or block access to personal data if the device is lost or stolen.

The Boeing Black would seemingly add additional protection during the period when a user may not know the device is missing. But Entner is still not sold on a major market need for what the companies are offering.