Cellcrypt, a provider of secure mobile voice calling, has launched a secure conference service that provides both device authentication and voice call encryption to participants using popular mobile phones like BlackBerry and Nokia smartphones.

Officials with Cellcrypt (News - Alert) said that the company’s secure conference service both authenticates the participant’s mobile phone and encrypts conversations end-to-end between each participant and the conference bridge, to ensure important conversations, from team briefings to board calls, remain confidential.

“Conference calls by their very nature typically contain some of the most sensitive and confidential information an organisation has,” said Simon Bransfield-Garth (News - Alert), CEO at Cellcrypt, in a statement.

Garth said that these calls are highly desirable to attackers, who know just how valuable the information is.

He said that as the risk of cellular interception has increased so has the vulnerability of mobile executives accessing conference calls from the mobile phones.

Garth said that organisations should urgently review their communications practices and act to protect their mission-critical conference calls.

Company officials said that the conference calling service is easy-to-use, with participants simply selecting a bridge number from their Cellcrypt Mobile enabled Blackberry or Nokia (News - Alert) smartphone to enter the call.

Office phones can also securely participate in conference calls when connected via Cellcrypt’s Enterprise Gateway (News - Alert) solution.

According to company officials, organisations can manage conference calls using a simple web console to define all users that may access the conferencing service, create bridge numbers, define policies such as user white lists and additional access PINs.

Optionally, a bridge may allow access from selected public telephones using Caller ID and PINs for authentication in geographies where the threat of interception is regarded as controlled (the call segments from public telephones are not encrypted).

The service, company officials said, builds on Cellcrypt’s existing solutions that provide encrypted voice calls on mobile phones, such as BlackBerry (News - Alert) and Nokia smartphones, delivering government-grade security in an easy-to-use application that makes highly secure calling as easy as making a normal phone call.