Governments are or will be concerned about a new GSM phone that is using AES256, Twofish and 4096-bit Diffie-Hellman key echange with a SHA256 hash function for encryption.

According to the website:

"Strong, verifiable and trustworthy voice encryption in every mobile smartphone and PDA will be as common as IPSec is today in even the cheapest DSL router boxes. The progress of technology finally provides the individual with the necessary means to take care of its privacy rights. Widespread wiretapping and privacy violations are currently threatening the business environment, civil liberties and the very future of democratic societies."

"There seems to be no realistic way to stem by political process alone the current flood of intrusive communication surveillance. Now the technical means for strong cryptographic protection of voice privacy are available also to the not technical inclined users."

One would need two of these phones to establish secure communication. There is also software available (free, including source) which allows one to test its security or to establish a secure connection using one such a GSM phone and a POST unit using a modem.

The CryptoPhone is produced in Germany and sold through a website. The phone is an invention of ex-hacker Rop Gonggrijp who started with a couple of others the first Dutch ISP called XS4ALL (now part of the Dutch telecom company KPN) in the early 90s. The German government is responsible for checking the phone's export regulations. The phone can be exported to most European countries and countries handled by the "EU 001" general license like the United States. The phone will not be exported to countries declared "evil" by the German government, such as Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lybia and North Korea. There are restrictions to a lot of other countries declared "special" such as Ethopia, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegowina, Burundi, China (except Hongkong), Eritrea, the Democratic Repulic of Congo, Cuba, Libanon, Liberia, Mosambique, Myanmar (Burma), Nigeria, Ruanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania or Uganda. The phone will not exported to "Zones of armed conflict and other high-risk areas". The website states:

"In addition to the official export regulations, we will not ship to some countries and areas that we regard as undesirable from a business perspective. Reasons for exclusion from shipment are usually civil war or comparable internal conflict, unstable geographic borders due to war or warlike situations, records of severe human rights abuse or direct neighborhood to areas of terrorism related activity. GSMK reserves the right to change its opinion on business risk profiles for countries and areas without notice. You can easily see in the webshop if we currently will ship to your country or area."

The company targets its product to a wide group. The FAQ section of the website states:

"Typical customers are corporate executives, lawyers, accountants, bankers, mergers & acquisition specialists, consultants (management, tax, security), journalists, law enforcement officers, government officials, doctors, private investigators and other people who simply prefer to communicate in private."

The phone will be sold for approx. 1800 euro. A version for the US will be available soon.

Erm... BTW: I didn't find any cute colored covers for this phone.