THIS IS THE ULTRA-SECURE SMARTPHONE USED BY EMMANUEL MACRON

Translation of the BFM article published on 9th November 2017 (source article)

 

Emmanuel Macron has an ultra-secure smartphone that will surprise many. It is a Samsung Galaxy smartphone prepared by Ercom and Orange Cyber Defense. Best-in-class confidentiality.

From 2006 to 2017, in addition to their personal device, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande used a Teorem, an ultra secure phone with a clamshell design and physical keys created by Thalès and the DGA. When he became president, Emmanuel Macron decided to use a more modern device.

Orange Cyber Defense provided him with a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge touchscreen smartphone. At first glance, it looks like a very ordinary smartphone. But this device, which uses the Ercom CryptoSmart technology [and not Atos Hoox, as we stated before – Ed.] could be part of the James Bond toolkit. As Ercom’s Communications Director, Raphael Basset, told us, this particular Galaxy is the result of a collaboration with Samsung’s R&D Lab.

Unlike consumer smartphones designed to communicate through social media, play games or take photos, the primary function of this phone is to communicate, but in an ultra-secure manner. First, voice and text communications are encrypted from end to end.

 

Data can be deleted remotely in case of loss or theft

The restricted pool of CryptoSmart users can also do group discussions. In a crisis situation, this allows several people to communicate together like a network of walkie-talkies.

Would the phone be stolen, the thief would not be able to use it. Firstly, because the phone has a custom tamper-proof key, and secondly because a special chip protects its content. Designed as a black box, all data it contains can be deleted remotely in case of loss or theft.

Does this means this is this the end for Teorem? Last January, Michel Van den Berghe, Director of Orange Cyberdefense, declared during an interview with Silicon that the flip phone would still remain active, because it is the only phone at the moment that is classified as “confidential defense”, while the CryptoSmart phone is classified as “restricted distribution”. This compels Emmanuel Macron to use at least three devices at the same time: the Teorem, the Ercom Galaxy S7 and, the personal iPhone he used before being elected.

Pascal Samama