BlackBerry Buys Chancellor Merkel’s Phone Security Company

BlackBerry has bought the German company SecuSmart. The German company regulates the security of the telephone of, among others, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. With the acquisition, the Canadian smartphone maker wants to further increase the security of its operating system.

There are still government agencies that must approve the acquisition, BlackBerry reports. With the takeover, BlackBerry probably wants to build in the data encryption of telephone conversations that SecuSmart already offers on BlackBerry devices as a separate service in the operating system. The Canadian smartphone maker has not commented on whether the use of the service will be reserved for governments and other paying customers or whether it will be available to all users.

SecuSmart provides end-to-end encryption for smartphones. This is done, among other things, by means of something that the company calls a Crypto-Chip, which can be placed in a normal SD card slot. SecuSmart previously worked with Nokia. Merkel used a Nokia phone with SecuSmart, but the US secret service NSA still managed to wiretap the phone; Merkel has been using a BlackBerry Z10 prepared for her since last year, also secured by the German company. It is unknown what BlackBerry will pay for the acquisition.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel with her SecuSmart-protected BlackBerry Z10