Cellcrypt has launched Cellcrypt Enterprise Gateway, which the company says enables business executives to securely call office desk phones from their cell phone. The solution is aimed at senior executives traveling to hostile countries where phone interception is widespread.

In addition, mobile executives can securely access standard office telephony features – such as voice mail, conference calls and calling out to the public telephone network – allowing them to seamlessly continue their normal business routine when abroad assured that confidential corporate and personal information is kept private.

Cellcrypt Enterprise Gateway is an enterprise software application that interfaces with office phone systems [Public Branch Exchanges (PBXs)] and provides encrypted voice calling to Blackberry and Nokia mobile phones running Cellcrypt Mobile software. It also passes commands to and from PBXs via keypad tones (DTMF) and interactive commands (IVR) to enable secure remote access to existing PBX telephony features such as conference calling.

As recently as this month, an unauthorized spy center was discovered in Latin America containing sophisticated cellular interception equipment used for spying on businesses, politicians and journalists. This is the latest example of illegal phone interception whose breadth and depth is only recently coming to the public stage. A 2005 report to U.S. Congress showed that far from being restricted to a few rogue nations, state sponsored interception is widespread, stating, for example, that 108 countries are actively engaged in collection efforts against U.S. technology assets.

Another reason for business travelers to secure cell phone calls when abroad is to protect personal information from kidnappers in high-risk regions, such as South America. In 2009, an estimated 9,000 kidnappings took place in Venezuela alone.

“The issue of phone interception is often thought to be restricted to government agencies but it has recently become clear that the equipment and software required is now available to the general public,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman & founder, Ponemon Institute. “The widespread availability of both the GSM encryption codebook and a complete base station software stack has brought mobile interception within reach of any graduate IT student with $2,000 of readily available equipment, substantially increasing the scale of the threat to the enterprise.”

“As business is increasingly conducted over mobile phones and on a global scale, it is a corporate responsibility to both the individual and the organization to protect private information,” said Simon Bransfield-Garth, CEO at Cellcrypt. “With the threat growing at an alarming rate, organizations need to adequately protect all types of calls ranging from board of director conference calls through to itinerary discussions with personal assistants. Cellcrypt Enterprise Gateway allows important office communications to continue normally even when key executives are out of the office or travelling abroad.”