Learn about the phones of African leaders designed to counter espionage

The heads of state of the African continent are keen to protect their phones from attempts to spy on them with different options, as they know the huge capabilities that the major companies specialized in electronic espionage possess.

French magazine "John Afric" reported in its latest issue that many leaders of West African countries rely on French technology to protect their phones from penetration, as former French presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Holland used the phone "Teorem", a device secured in a way Large, with buttons, not a touch screen, and made by French company "Thales".

But using this phone remains so boring, to the point that former President Sarkozy has admitted that he hates that phone.

But the French company bought the company "Ercom" in the past few years, and added to the phone Turm smart encryption technology, developed by the South Korean company Samsung, and this technology aims to protect the calls and data in the phone.

As for the current French President Emmanuel Macron, he uses the aforementioned technology on the Galaxy S7, which is equipped with a touch screen, but with a key resistant to penetration, and a chip that protects the phone's data.

Macron designed the French company, "Orange CyberDefense", to serve as a black box, so that the data in it will be destroyed remotely once it is lost or stolen.

other options
However, other leaders on the African continent prefer to use other phones at a lower cost, including the "Hawks" phone developed by the French "Bell" company, and then took over by "Atos", a European multinational company based in France, and the price of this phone is two thousand euro.

Others also use the "Secreta Edge" phone, manufactured by the company "General Dynamic" American, and its price is less than three thousand euros, in addition to the phone "Black Phone" which was developed by the American company, Saltel Circle, as well, and its price is about 550 euros, in addition to the phone "Granite" Vaughn is produced by the French company Archos, and is worth about eight hundred euros.

The French weekly specializing in African affairs indicated that Rwandan Presidents Paul Kagame and Senegalese Macky Sall are believed to be two faithful customers of Canadian "Blackberry" phones, whose products are successful on the continental level.

Likewise, the Togolese President, "Fawar Gnassingbe", who was one of the first heads of French-speaking African countries to communicate 15 years ago via SMS.

And if the Guinean Alpha Alpha Conde, who never travels without three or four mobile phones, has switched in his correspondence from short phone messages to messaging via WhatsApp, then to Telegram; then other African heads of state still belong to the pre-independence generation They adopt more radical methods.

Cameroon presidents Paul Biya, Congo Dennis Sassou Nguesso, Mali Boubacar Keita and Djibouti Ismail Omar Ghila do not answer the call on their phones, and they use them in a very selective manner.

Old Nokia
As for the president of Ivory Coast, Hassan Watar, he maintains, along with his old-fashioned Nokia phone, what he trusts.

Like the heads of state in Africa, the majority of political figures on the continent have learned how to manipulate different technologies to confront the large ears that lurk their phones. In recent years, it has become common for the following dialogue between political leaders to take place "Hello, can we talk?" "Yes, of course, but not on this line," the other replied.

The opponents in Africa have long moved to correspond with them through the WhatsApp application, believing - rightly or wrongly - that their local phones are subject to eavesdropping on the security services in their countries.

Against WhatsApp
One of these opponents says that this is a security measure, while one of the specialists in the field of mobile technology replied, laughing, "It is an illusion. Most governments have the technology that can thwart the encryption protocols that WhatsApp adopts," an application that the social networking giant Facebook bought. year 2014.

The technical expert adds that intercepting WhatsApp messages is more complicated than intercepting SMS messages, but the matter is enforceable, because there are back doors that can be used to enter the WhatsApp system.

Some officials in Africa are proceeding with a smarter method, as a senior official from the Central African Republic reveals that he has moved to use a Telegram app developed by a Russian company.

This application - which the company I have developed from Berlin - has built a worldwide reputation for its rigorous encryption of data from text messages, photos, video clips and calls, and as a result many people prefer a telegram to WhatsApp.

Rear doors
However, "John Afric" magazine quoted a former technical expert as saying that the matter "is just a scatter of ashes in the eyes, as the famous rear doors are also present in the Telegram."

Many mobile phone security professionals say the option they are most interested in is the use of the Signal app, which was promoted by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who years ago leaked massive information about how and the extent of espionage by US intelligence agencies All over the world.

Signal developed the San Francisco-based Open Whisper System, which funds itself through donations, and the support of the non-profit Signal Foundation.

The former technical expert compares between WhatsApp and Telegram on the one hand, and Signal on the other hand by saying "WhatsApp and Telegram are like cars driving on a highway, while Signal armored truck is traveling in a tunnel, yet there is always a way to penetrate it provided you pay the cost of that." .