Obama’s “Secure” Blackberry

      by Wyatt Walter

Okay, I guess I was behind the 8 ball yesterday when I talked about Microsoft wanting Obama to be on the Microsoft platform due to “security risks” with the Blackberry. It’s official, they’re going to let him use a standard Blackberry with an upgraded encryption package. The device will be available to Obama to communicate with keep in touch with personal friends and his senior staff. The device has an upgraded encryption package of some sort that allows him to send encrypted emails from his device to the mail client on the other end (I imagine PGP or something similar) so the mail is encrypted while traveling throught he wireless carrier’s network as well as through RIM’s network. This is all standard stuff in terms of securing communications, but it brings to light another perspective.

The device that the President is allowed to use is a standard-issue Blackberry (which model, I’m not sure) with an upgraded encryption software to meet the satisfaction of the security-conscious within his administration. Yet, the device proposed by Microsoft that is certified by the NSA costs around $3,300. Certainly Obama didn’t pay $3,300 for his Blackberry + encryption software! Perhaps Steve Ballmer would like to retract his statement of a few years ago about the iPhone being the most expensive phone in the world..

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Filed under News : Comments (0) : Jan 27th, 2009

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