Motorola Handset Modified for National Security Agency

General Dynamics Decision Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics has announced the availability of the Type 1 certified Sectera Secure GSM cellphone. The phone will be used by U.S. government personnel for secure communications over commercial GSM wireless networks worldwide. The National Security Agency (NSA) certified the secure phone's ability to protect classified information up to the Top Secret level on June 3rd this year.

Certification of General Dynamics' secure wireless products is a significant achievement in the U.S. government's overall secure wireless strategy, according to the NSA's Office of Secure End-User Technologies. The Type 1 phone, which consists of a clip-in secure module designed for use with the Motorola Timeport Tri-band phone, operates over commercial or private GSM systems in the 900, 1800 and 1900 GSM bandwidths.

"The Sectera Secure Wireless Phone for GSM gives government users access to commercial technology and infrastructure and provides a means to exchange sensitive and classified information with end-to-end security," said Mark Fried, General Dynamics Decision Systems president and general manager. "We have received many inquiries from our customer base in advance of this product's introduction because of the widespread need for high assurance secure wireless telecommunications products."

The Sectera Secure Wireless Phone for GSM interoperates with the General Dynamics Sectera Wireline Terminal, which was announced in April 2002. The wireline terminal is a compact, lightweight device that connects to a standard analog telephone or a personal computer to provide secure voice and data communications.

General Dynamics also plans to introduce a commercial version of the secure GSM phone, which will be available for export.'"

Posted to the site on 7th June 2002