January 11, 2010: A French firm has developed a cell phone cryptography technology strong enough to satisfy French government and NATO security standards. The president of France was pleased, and his subordinates were relieved, because their boss is an enthusiastic smart phone user. Smartphones are popular because they can do so much, particularly accessing the Internet. But wireless devices, especially cell phones, give military and government security officials a very bad feeling. Moreover, in the last few years, several prominent heads-of-state (including the current American president), who were avid smartphone users, came to power. They were all told by their security personnel that smartphones were not secure enough (from eavesdropping) for the head of a major nation to use. But when you are the top guy in the government, you can order subordinates to find solutions, or else. The secure smartphones soon appeared, and are starting to show up from a lot more companies. By next year, some 20,000 senior French government officials will have the new, secure, smart phones.
This bodes well for the troops, who have been agitating for something like the iPhone, that they could use on the battlefield. That is in the works as well.
