Had Prince Victor Emmanuel used a secure cellphone he could have saved himself the embarrassment and arrest regarding the allegations of providing prostitutes and dealing in illegal slot machines. Similarly Luciano Moggi (of the soccer game-fixing scandal fame) and Vice President Piero Fassino of the Democratic Left party (and his comments on a sensitive bank takeover) were nailed due to their negligent use of the mobile phone. A number of Italian politicians, businessmen, soccer players and coaches, showgirls and actors have had their personal conversations recorded by official or nubile detectives and then leaked to the press. The former head of Italy's top spy agency, Nicolo Pollari, got a taste of his own medicine when transcripts of some of his conversations were leaked to the media. Stories like these have resulted in boom sales for companies like Caspertech, a four-year-old Turin Company that sells encrypted cellphone software. Earlier the clients were the government and the military but last year about 60 % of sales were credited to the common-man.

Phone encryption companies sell a range of products (all legal, according to them) that can keep cellphone text messages to actual voice conversations a secret. High-end packages start at about $2,200. The pack consists of the phone, which has to be a particular kind to use the encryption software. Caspertech's software works only with Windows Mobile operating system where as Snapcom (another service provider) offers software that can be used on other platforms as well. It works like this - phones on both sides of the voice conversation have a software preloaded which once activated through a personal key code scrambles or encryptes the user's voice. The data is then send through a normal GSM cellphone network, received by the listener's phone and then decrypted back into decipherable language, all of which causes a slight delay. The lower end packages includes software that can cover up your SMS text message for €300, or $410. The mid-range packs scrambles your fax or masks the content of your fixed-line calls for €1,100 and up.
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