ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): Pakistan has successfully developed the first-ever fully secure mobile, intended for government officials.
The device has been developed under a pilot project of the NTC, whose hardware and software have been entirely engineered within the country.
According to the officials at NTC, the secure handset runs on a specially developed operating system that does not connect to the internet, reducing the chances of cyber intrusions to a minimum.
All the applications residing on the phone have been developed locally, and the device will also support SIMs of all Pakistani telecom operators.
Officials also confirmed that calls can only be made to another secure handset of the same type.
The NTC officials said the phone has no backup feature, so in cases of theft or compromise, data extraction is impossible. They also said communication through this device cannot be intercepted or monitored, so sensitive conversations among government personnel will be well-protected.
Officials told the higher authorities that, in the first phase of the pilot project, ten mobile phones have been produced. The officials added that the mass production requires more funding to spread this initiative at each government department level.
NTC officials also stressed that commercial communication platforms like WhatsApp are not secure, as service providers can listen in on user conversations.
They said that during the recent Pakistan-India conflict, WhatsApp communication was exposed, which only heightened the need for a dedicated secure communication device for government use.
