There may be a new cell phone manufacturer in the smartphone market that is prepared to keep your information safe at all costs
Many of the companies have banded together to prepare kill switches in smartphones that have gone missing– shutting the phone off if it were ever stolen. But Boeing has taken it a step further with phones that will self-destruct.
Securing your smartphone data
If you take a look at the new Boeing smartphone, you’ll get a bulkier phone that may not look quite as advanced as the competition. The smartphone is called the Boeing Black and will self destruct upon confirmation it has been stolen. One of the things most often-stolen in today’s world is a smartphone. Just wipe the drive, and it can be easily sold off, or you can get all the personal information you may need off it to steal someone’s identity. Whether or not we should really store such valuable and important information in one place is a good question, but Boeing answers it with an extremely secure phone meant to help protect you.
Why so extreme?
You may be thinking to yourself that a kill switch to stop all access to the phone might be enough for most people. And you would be right. The whole point of the phone isn’t to give the average person a safe way to store information on their phone. In fact, this phone is targeted at the security and defense industry, according to ABC News.
The point is to offer a secure way for the government, or even businesses for that matter, to have private and confidential information sent through phones without worrying about that information getting to the wrong hands or wrong people. If the phone is lost, it would simply be reported, and the phone would then self destruct.
What do you mean self destruct?
Say someone gets your phone and tries to disassemble it or it is reported missing. You’re probably imagining the phone exploding and hurting the person carrying it. Fortunately, you won’t start seeing small explosions all over town due to stolen smartphones. Instead, the phone will delete any data in the phone and turn off all use capabilities to protect it as much as possible. This is as close to self destructing for a smartphone as you can get.
This would be the kind of technology that would deter thieves if it were used on an everyday level by average people.
Not for everyone though
The Boeing Black isn’t something your average person will be able to get their hands on, of course. It will only be available to defense customers of Boeing. It may be just for defense contractors at the moment, but I can’t imagine this kind of thing won’t catch on with other cell phone manufacturers soon. Of course, Boeing’s phone comes extra features, such as a solar power and better location services, which likely won’t be offered on your new smartphone. But the good news is that a self-destruct option will probably catch on and be available in new smartphones soon, especially with the good reaction the Boeing Black has gotten.
Source: ABC News
