The ‘K iPhone’ bgr.com

Mike Wehner of BGR:

KryptAll says its modified iPhone utilizes modified components, a custom firmware, and the company’s own VoIP app to make end-to-end encrypted phone calls to anyone in the world. But while it can make calls to any number, it can only take incoming calls from other KryptAll devices, to ensure security. The company says that phone calls made of its encrypted network cannot be tapped or tracked, and that not oven KryptAll has any way of knowing the details of the calls.

[…]

That makes a lot of sense, because in order to afford one of these custom iPhones you’ll definitely need a pretty healthy paycheck. The devices, which the company sells on eBay for some reason, are several thousands of dollars each, and the current price of the iPhone 7 version is over $4,500.

So let me get this straight: for over five times the cost of an actual iPhone, you can purchase — from eBay, the natural habitat of hucksters — a modified and jailbroken iPhone with sketchy software made by a company you’ve never heard of. Given that the iPhone is recommended by security experts and that there are plenty of secure calling apps available for iOS, why would anyone buy one of these?

Moreover, does anyone find BGR’s unblinking rehash of KryptAll’s press release not just lazy but dangerous? A jailbroken iPhone introduces all sorts of security vulnerabilities, and it’s necessarily impossible to keep up with Apple’s iOS updates. Put another way, BGR has fallen for the marketing of a less secure and more expensive iPhone. Awful.