FINALLY! we can buy Staria

[Declan McCullagh]

I happened to hear from Lee Caplin of Starium today. They've
apparently (I'm looking at Lee's email message while typing this, but
I don't wish to speak for them) abandoned plans to sell the
bump-in-a-wire device. Now they're thinking of marketing a small
RJ11'd cryptophone an executive would carry around. Also, Lee says
Starium has filed for patents on a desk phone, answering machine and
conference phone.

-Declan



On Tue, Oct 23, 2001 at 03:06:29AM -0000, Dr. Evil wrote:
> (is that the correct plural of Starium?)
> 
> http://www.tactronix.com/s100.htm
> 
> NOW TAKING PRE-ORDERS FOR DELIVERY IN DECEMBER 2001/JANUARY 2002
> 
> Very Limited Quantity Available
> 
> A 50% Deposit Will Reserve Your Units Today!!
> 
> 1-10 Units  $995 USD Each
> 
> 11-20 Units $936 USD Each
> 
> 21-50 Units $884 USD Each
> 
> 51 Units+ Call For Price
> 
> What do people here think of this?  My initial thoughts are:
> 
> Pros:
> 
> 1. Voice encryption is great.  It's the Last Great Encryption Taboo
>    (the other is file encryption, but that's not nearly as taboo as
>    voice).  I'm glad to see something on the market which addresses
>    this.  Obviously, all traffic, including saying hi to grandma,
>    should be encrypted.
> 
> 2. The unit looks very easy to use.  I could travel anywhere in the
>    world with it (well, anywhere that it's legal) and plug it in and
>    press one button and it works.  That's great.
> 
> Cons:
> 
> 1. I would like to see an open source reference software
>    implementation, or some way to verify that there are no "naughty
>    bits" in this thing.  I know, open source isn't much of a business
>    model, but with encryption products, it seems almost essential.
> 
> 2. It's expensive.  It costs more than a PC.  However, $2k for two
>    units is small compared to the value of data it could be securing,
>    so for many users, the price will be fine.
> 
> 3. A minor nitpick: It uses 3DES.  What's wrong with AES?
> 
> I think I would like to buy some of them, but I can't decide if I want
> to be an early adopter, or wait for cheaper and better versions to
> come out.