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Surveillance: the ultra-secure phones of Africa’s presidents

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This article is part of the dossier:

Cyber surveillance: a new market, with old clients

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By Mathieu Olivier

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Posted on February 3, 2020 09:59

South African Deputy-President Cyril Ramaphosa use his phone during a rally to commemorate Nelson Mandela’s centenary year in Cape Town © Security of communications is a key concern for African leaders, like South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings
Security of communications is a key concern for African leaders, like South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

Well aware of the surveillance capabilities of major companies in the sector, Africa’s heads of state try to make their phones as secure as Fort Knox. Every leader is geared up and takes extra precautions to prevent the ever-looming risk of being tapped. We take a look at the phones used by Africa’s presidents and politicians’ practices.

This is part 2 of a 4-part series.

In West Africa, some leaders have been won over by French technologies.

French presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande used a Teorem, an ultra-secure clamshell phone with physical buttons created by Thales. However, using it requires a certain amount of patience, and Sarkozy hated it for that reason.

Recently, the French company acquired Ercom and added another jewel to its collection: CryptoSmart technology, developed in partnership with Samsung, which protects communications and mobile data. Emmanuel Macron uses the system, a fact that Ercom’s marketing department has not let go unnoticed. The France’s President has a Samsung Galaxy S7 with a touch screen, equipped with a tamper-proof encryption key and a data protection chip. Orange Cyberdéfense is behind this black box-like system, whose data can be destroyed remotely if the

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