Smartphone security has been a hot topic of late. Various reports on the security risks associated with storing information on your handset, doing mobile banking and communicating sensitive information over the air abound. The release, by anti-virus companies like Kaspersky Lab, of mobile security products highlights this.

Someone should have told former president Mbeki and former Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy that intercepting cellphone calls, in particular, is not a difficult thing to do. Intercepting calls with the help of IMSI- catchers or hacking someone\'s SIM card with a service SMS are two of the more common means for snoops to listen in on your conversations.

Secusmart, a Nokia spin-off, has come up with a rather novel way to ensure the privacy of your conversations. Their Secuvoice micro-SD card, when inserted into you phone, encrypts your voice communications, effectively scrambling your voice and the voice of whomever you are speaking to. The card doubles as external storage, which means you won’t have to swoop it out every time you want some extra storage either.

While the appeal of this Secuvoice is obvious for politicians, celebrities, and business people, the product will meet the needs private individuals as well- when speaking to the bank for instance.

Being a Nokia spin-off, the card is only compatible with Nokia’s N and E series devices but it should become available for other Symbian-based phones in the near future.

For more information contact TriVest on 012 803 1039.