Japan Technology

“mikroPhone” project to create an open source privacy-specific mobile phone – GIGAZINE



The sources and blueprints of the mobile phone “mikroPhone”, which uses the open source instruction set architecture RISC-V and is designed to be simple and self-manufactured, have been released.

mikroPhone
https://mikrophone.net/

Many of the smartphones people use today are manufactured by major companies such as Apple and Google, and most of the average person is unable to understand how they work or how they work, and it is difficult to understand where the user’s data goes. is also difficult.

This is especially important for investigative journalists, human rights activists, and others who require secure communication methods. In the past, it was reported that the smartphone monitoring software “Pegasus” created by the Israeli company NSO Gruop was being used to monitor the smartphones of journalists around the world.

Smartphone monitoring software “Pegasus” may have been used to monitor more than 180 journalists in 20 countries – GIGAZINE


“mikroPhone” is a project that aims to overcome these security threats and create a mobile phone that protects users and their privacy as much as possible. mikroPhone is a non-profit organizationNLnetThe project was made possible with funding from NGI0 Entrust, a foundation established by NLnet, and NLnet receives financial support from the European Commission’s Next Generation Internet Programme.

The conceptual diagram of mikroPhone is as follows. The core part is basically a mobile phone with a display and a touch screen, and the central microcontroller (central MCU) is a RISC-V-based microcontroller “SiFive Freedom E310”.


Since the RISC-V microcontroller is the only processor that can access mikroPhone’s sensors, microphones, and cameras, the risk of microphone and camera data being stolen by remote control is kept low.

In addition, all sensitive data is encrypted by the MCU before being sent to communication modules such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and communications are designed for mikroPhone with end-to-end encryption.onion routingThe protocol “EllipticCP” that ensures anonymity is used.

Furthermore, because hardware can be made from off-the-shelf products that are as open as possible, the risk of supply chain attacks such as malware being introduced during the manufacturing process is greatly reduced.

At the time of writing this article, mikroPhone’s core hardware design has already been completed, and the central MCU OS, which supports basic phone functions such as phone calls and SMS messages, is also almost complete. Also, in the photo below, the board is exposed, but it seems that you can also make a 3D printable phone case designed with FreeCAD.


Drawings and firmware for these boards can be obtained from the repository below.

rvPhone git repository
https://git.majstor.org/

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