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Solving Obama's BlackBerry Dilemma
CurtMonash writes "Much is being made of the deliberations as to whether President Obama will be able to keep using his beloved "BarackBerry." As the NYTimes details, there are two major sets of objections: infosecurity and legal/records retention. Deven Coldeway of CrunchGear does a good job of showing that the technological infosecurity problems can be solved. And as I've noted elsewhere, the 'Omigod, he left his Blackberry behind at dinner' issue is absurd. Presidents are surrounded by attendants, Secret Service and otherwise. Somebody just has to be given the job of keeping track of the president's personal communication device. As for the legal question of whether the president can afford to put things in writing that will likely be exposed by courts and archivists later — the answer to that surely depends on the subject matter or recipient. Email to his Chicago friends — why not? Anything he'd write to them would be necessarily non-secret anyway. Email to the Secretary of Defense? That might be a different matter."
Talk about a waste of bandwidth.
Its interesting to think of how much money Research in Motion would spend developing a unit specifically for him, that met all of the security criteria, just so he would be seen with it. I imagine some type of self destruct feature would be necessary, in addition to insane encryption.
I just did a pretty good submission about the very same issue. Now, alas, redundant. But I did pick up one useful new fact: General Dynamics makes something called a Sectera Edge which would probably be a good, secure, replacement for the Obamaberry.
...enough to use an electronic device without it being a security problem I don't see why Obama couldn't handle such a difficult task as president.
The solution is simple -- the government already has PDAs that tie into their networks and are secure. He will use that for classified information, as required by law anyway. His blackberry will be used for non-classified information. Separation between the two is also required by law. Now, why are we fangirling over Obama like this? This wasn't news when Bush was in office and he used a cell phone and a PDA too. Now I wait for my -1, didn't fangirl score.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
This is only going to become more pertinent of an issue. We might as well figure it out now. If we don't, we'll just have to figure out a system next time, as in four or eight years this will only be more common.
It's not like a system couldn't be devised that would work, they just need to look at the specific roadblocks and figure something out.
As McCain said, we should get together the smartest people in the country to solve this problem. He's a smart guy coming up with cutting edge ideas like that. ;)
-Taylor
Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
This is a perfect example of how security nuts make life difficult even for people in positions of tremendous power. He's the head of the government. Logically, Obama should just be able to say, "I'm keeping my Blackberry" and have his staff figure out how comply to with records retention, etc. It's not that hard.
That Obama doesn't automatically win this one as the most powerful man is world makes me feel better about the continually hassles I'm forced to put up with by the IT department in name of "security.
Meet IT
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
I'm a little surprised that the US Govt. does not have a communication service just for its own executive office. One would think they could find a way to utilize thechnology's that RIM has introduced, to a more secure network. Maybe a PGP encrypted phone? I seem to recall there being some sort of encryption software for windows mobile OS, surely such a piece of software could be put in place, in combination with a govt. run communications network to ensure that our president can 1. keep his blackberry and 2. allow for the office of the presidency to opperate in the 21st century. THe only problem that could arise in this is the legal issues of archiving all emails sent to/by the president- as we may recall a few years back the large uproar of RNC email addresses being used to conduct federal matters. But I'm sure congress can work out that detail.
Can we stop all this portmanteau crap? Please? It's like the imaginary label "President-Elect"...
PS:
And as I've noted elsewhere, the 'Omigod, he left his Blackberry behind at dinner' issue is absurd
No, it's not. The people who surround the president have (practically since the inception of nuclear weapons) had problems keeping the codes or the authorization mechanisms physically secure, despite the fact that the fucking thing is in fact attached to the person carrying it:
On occasion the President has left his aide carrying the football behind. This happened to Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush[2] and, most recently, Bill Clinton on April 24, 1999.[3] In none of these cases was the integrity of the football breached. clicky.
It's one thing for a "football" which is specifically designed to not rely just on restricted access, but if someone got ahold of Obama's blackberry, getting into it isn't nearly as challenging.
Also, the article submitter doesn't have the remotest understanding of how things work at a presidential level in regards to information security; its not as simple as "zOMG, do not email the sec of defense on blackberry!" Bush went so far as to keep his press secretary at arm's length so that he was truly ignorant on stuff that Bush didn't want the press to know about.
Much of information security at that level isn't about actual classified information, but dissemination of unclassified information to the media that is either beneficial or hurtful to other political entities and individuals, domestic or foreign.
Please help metamoderate.
Do you really think that no one on Obama's team can figure out whether or not there are issues with him having a PDA. This article seems to indicate that they know something the rest of Obama's team and he himself don't know.... But they obviously have no idea what the issues with the presidential records act are, let alone the ridiculousity of chiseling a security argumenet down to a self destruct feature. I hope everyone on /. already knows there is more to security than whether or not the device can be erased after someone realizes it is lost (potentially well after it has fall into nefarious hands).
so you have the best communications one would ever want and you want to keep your shitberry? your already a dumb ass for that.. everything you get once your pres is 15x better than your blackberry just STFU and deal with it you dbag..
problem solved, oh and I think the CTO for the federal government should be Steve Jobs once he feels better and the first project for the Obama administration should be to convert the entire government to Macs and OS X. Then we would be safe and effective as a nation!
We keep forgetting what the original purpose of these little electronic gizmos was.
Or... they call them Personal Digital Assistants for a reason.
So call me crazy, but I'm guessing the POTUS just might have the resources to get an actual Personal Assistant to handle all of the functions of a PDA.
Plus I hear the voice-based interface on PAs is a snap to learn.
Corollary to Hanlon's razor: Any significantly advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.
I have to take issue with the idea that having someone keep track of the device would prevent it from being left behind. After all, if the Nuclear Football or launch codes have been be left behind or lost at least four times, then the Presidential Blackberry could just as well slip out of a pocket in a crowd.
I am sure the previous presidents of the united states used cellphones and laptops. This is no different by the combination of the two. What exactly are those security experts hired for anyway? They are suppose to enable usage of tools while preserving security, not by telling their boss what he can't do. They are getting paid big bucks for resolving the headaches, not creating them. Any incompetent fool can suggest not to use a particular solution, the competent IT workers get things done without disrupting the service.
Where is the "Ignorant" mod tag?
Why does the president need a blackberry? Doesn't he have more important things to do than write emails and call people? Won't he have a secretary to do all that for him?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
It's a cell phone.
It's his property.
He can do whatever the fuck he wants with it.
I fucking hate the media for creating this fucking non-issue.
Why was this not an issue when he was a senator?
As long as he keeps his black berry for personal use only, it's fine. If it's for official use as well, then they should implement some basic security both inside and outside the device, just as you would with a the President's computer, his plane, his car, his (land line) phone, and his dog.
Obama the person is not always Obama the President. Every single thing he says, types, does, etc. does not need to be logged, filed, and splooged over. Maybe the guy wants to take a minute to troll slashdot while sitting on the can. Maybe he wants to post a message to his daughter's village in Animal Crossing.
Where's that AC with the post about eating Obama's turd?
He's actually a Mulatto, much like Tiger Woods is actually more Asian than Black . We still don't have an actual pure Black African president. Step away from the "c-c-c-combo breaker" pics.
"the 'Omigod, he left his Blackberry behind at dinner' issue is absurd." The president has left behind far more important items. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/328442.stm
...the answer to that surely depends on the subject matter or recipient. Email to his Chicago friends - why not?
Such latitude all of the sudden. Only months ago Bush was a criminal of the highest order because non-official email accounts were being used. What for? Doesn't matter, there aren't any exceptions... Obama uses a PDA? Well now, subject matter, recipients... well I'll be, look at all this gray area! Obviously no possibility of abuse. Oh no.
Frankly this is all bullshit. Just because a bunch of tort lawyers have you convinced that there is something wrong with private communications doesn't mean it's true. Corporate emails, private communications among politicians... none of it should be exposed beyond the originators wishes regardless of what you and your nanny state rulers want. They're going to stick your own fucking rules on you one day.
Let's be serious. The secret service could care less about the info security. They're a lot more concerned about the fact that they have all these guys who are sitting ducks because 'Renegade' insists on carrying a homing device with him wherever he goes. I think the solution is to tell the world he's carrying a blackberry but then carry some custom device which is built on radio.
The BlackBerry is a cell phone... isn't there a law that cell phones must be able to be located, within a few hundred feet, for EMS purposes?
I am sure the secret service would love to have the president tracked by his phone carrier.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
If only the 'No Blackberry Left Behind Act' were more adequately funded.
I think techies ought to appreciate this, it's entirely Murphy's Law. If he can lose it, he will. A great example is that once Bill Clinton walked out on a check. (Might have been after he was out of office) He just assumed someone else had it. A reporter picked it up. That reporter managed to make a name for himself by covering a $20 tab. Now, imagine if a reporter got ahold of Obama's blackberry. I'm sure the reporter would return it, eventually....
Unless people believe Obama is incapable of getting distracted....
Then again, I'm pretty sure he could ask RIM for a blackberry with a thumb scan and get one custom made....
Here's to losing my Karma Bonus again....
Mr. Obama is on my payroll (just like every State and Federal employee) and I want to know where my money is being spent.
I don't know what you pay in taxes but I let every City, State and Federal employee know that I want them to spend *MY* money properly. Sure, you say it is a small portion but when 39% of my cash goes to "the government", it is real fucking number to me.
I have a buddy who works for the city. We were discussing the recent zoning laws that changed (without my input) and I commented that "well, the city knows what's best". He laughed and said sometimes they don't. I asked then if he did his job well and if he knew how to do his job best and of course he said "I'd like to think so". I then commented "well, we have a conflict here". He was quite confused as to how to answer.
Personally, I'd like to see every congressperson have their financial dealings in read-only mode on the web for any US Citizen to read. "Public servants" are a thing of the past.
As a side note: I took my first State contract and made $4500 for a job someone who was paid $2000 could do in 1/8th of the time. I offered to find that person, save the State money and was denied the opportunity. That's the last time I worked for the State.
I must be missing something big, but isn't the point of a Blackberry the fact that everything goes through a $business-controlled server? One that can nuke the device from orbit whenever the admin says so? One that stores all the data securely?
I thought that's pretty much why RIM was able to get Blackberries into so many businesses - they could just buy a server that would integrate with their stuff and keep it all safe.
I'd actually be upset if he wasn't using a blackberry, but a less-secure cellphone
Or am I way off the mark for some reason, and why?
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
It's about the fact that it can be 'tracked' -- just as the US has used cellphone tracking to hunt down bad-guys overseas, they can do the same thing to us if they know what cellphone we have.
It's not about the 'archival' of data. The Blackberry taps into YOUR traditional mail infrastructure. If you back it up, then your messages are archived.
No, it's more about the fact that an external company is granted access (usually via VPN) to your internal network (or at least part of it) and, more specifically, they get to keep a copy of your authentication credentials (so they can watch your new mail arrive, copy it, and delivery it to your device). Allowing a 3rd party company VPN access to a US government network with the Whitehouse mail server and, oh by the way, a copy of the president's username and password... well NOW maybe you can understand why they're nervous about security.
Frankly it would be better if he were addicted to an iPhone. At least with that solution you can host your email on any IMAP compliant mail server you want and nobody but you needs a copy of your security certificates, VPN gateway access, or username & passwords.
whether the president can afford to put things in writing that will likely be exposed by courts and archivists later
Do you really WANT a leader who would write anything that should not be 'exposed'??
I thought you Americans were supposed to be against totalitarian government. Apparently not; you voted it in several times and appear to have learned nothing by it.
you had me at #!
Sure, just add an employee to look after the blackberry? Really? It's just that simple? Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush and Clinton have all left behind the Nuclear Football at events.
This wasn't news when Bush was in office and he used a cell phone and a PDA too.
Actually, it was an issue for Bush, though it had nothing to do with phone calls or PDA functionality.
Obama is a notorious IM addict. He pretty much ran his campaign through his Blackberry. Now of course, you can use a Blackberry to make phone calls and track your appointments, but that's not why he's under pressure to give it up. The security wonks don't like the potential for text messages getting intercepted, and the lawyers don't like the legal exposure he'd get if the messages were subpoenaed or FOIAed.
I'm not sure if Bush ever had a Blackberry or a PDA, but he used to be a heavy email user. He went cold turkey when he assumed office. According to his "last email" that went out to all his correspondents, it was mainly about the legal exposure.
An NSA-approved smart phone is probably the solution to the security issue. (See one of the submissions in my sig.) I suspect Obama will just blow off the legal issue. He's supposed to be Mr. Open Government, after all.
Now I wait for my -1, didn't fangirl score.
And you'd deserve it! People who don't like fangirl stories (what happened to fanboys?) have no place on Slashdot!
But this is not a fanchild issue. Obama keeps talking about the dangers of living in the "Presidential Bubble". One way he wants to avoid this is to have a lot of contacts that aren't mediated by his underlings. A Blackberry or other pocket IM device is an obvious tool for this purpose.
I suspect he's being a little naive. He's going to be in charge of the biggest bureaucracy on the planet — does he really think that he can be on a first-person basis with the whole kaboodle? But hey, he's surprised us before!
The OP doesn't seem to actually understand the concerns. First of all, information sent and received from a device like a blackberry is hardly secure. They can't very well risk having confidential information absent-mindedly entered into a note on a phone or very private numbers/emails stuck in a phone book. Beyond someone physically getting a hold of the phone, it's entirely possible for the device to be accessed via blue tooth and such, which he could turn on just tinkering with the thing.
On the note of record retention. Records passed to and from officials can meet all kinds of retention laws. They don't have to be about top secret government business to need to be retained forever. In fact, many records that are deemed to be kept forever are actually public record, that have to be presentable upon request. So if he sends a message about making a plan for business (IE asking someone to come to a meeting), depending on the context, it could be a matter of public record forever. If his phone is destroyed and the document wasn't backed up, he would be screwed as soon as a court asked for his copy.
Hey, Come on... We are people at SLASHDOT... That used to mean "technology folks" that were usually involved in security, technology, and BOFH's... The RULE IS: NO Personal Communications Device. NO exceptions. Sorry you don't like the rules, Now enforce it. I think that is in the BOFH Rule book someplace.
If he can't live with this rule, what about the rest? What are we to think if he constantly considers himself "above the law?" This is just a start of the trend that eventually leads to corruption. (IF it already isn't so.)
Besides, All you might need is a laser and bounce it off of the screen when he's using it and anyone could read it... (oops, wrong tech? Does that work for LCD's?)
--- Relax, that mass muderer is just trying to reduce our carbon footprint, one fetus at a time...
The problem is just this: If the president sends a private communication to a friend or relative, he is required to pay for it himself, and also pay for the security required or the security response needed to safeguard those friends or relatives if there is a leak. Security does not take credit, and if the security budget is expended they are required to work for free, which can cause problems not only for dependents of those security workers, but for the administration itself if it cannot allocate or justify more funds. I wouldn't want to see a Patriot Act II just so the prez could pay for his blackberry security leak messes.
"Somebody just has to be given the job of keeping track of the president's personal communication device."
That's it? THAT'S the best solution?
Is there a fallback plan if the person whose job it is makes a mistake? Or is this a job for someone who never makes mistakes?
Working for a state agency I am required to use a Blackberry vs. a smartphone or other PDA. This is suppossedly because it is more secure and has an encryption password built in that will wipe the phone if lost.
"The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget." -Thomas Szasz
Shouldn't we encourage the president to be doing anything that will make it easier for courts to know what he's up to? If the courts are interested in what's on his Blackberry, it means he's suspected of something serious, and we as citizens should want to make sure the court gets all the information about it as they can.
At my current job, all e-mail entering, leaving, and within the organization are public record. Anyone can file a public records request and get all my outgoing and incoming e-mail, with confidential information redacted.
I can check my personal e-mail from work over an SSL connection. I can receive text messages on my personal cell phone. I don't do work stuff with my personal phone and e-mail, and I don't do personal stuff with my work phone and e-mail.
So I get elected President of the United States. I exchange text messages with my wife, friends, and family. I have a personal e-mail account at some vanilla hosting provider. Do I have to save all of this and turn it over when I leave office? Or is it considered personal, just like how now, my personal e-mail isn't public record?
RIM's support for OSX is hideously outdated. It's basically a set of bandage solutions so that you can do the minimum amount of syncing and media management...but not at the same time.
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
Just wondering, by "girl in training" do you mean transexual? If so, that's awesome. I've recently started my transition (male to female).
It's not nearly that simple. Putting aside the issue of self-control, there are also many instances in which a President would want to deny ever having *received* a certain message, which is much harder to do when you check your email yourself on your Barackberry. Look at how easy it was for Bush and his senior staff to deny having received credible intelligence about a potential attack on 9/11. Had that intelligence been sent to him via email, and had he received that message on a blackberry, his administration would have been dead and buried years ago.
http://www.l-3com.com/cs-east/ia/smeped/ie_ia_smeped.shtml
for today's President on the go.
...the President elected to represent his/her nation cannot afford (even with secret court hearings and time-restricted public expoosure - often in the 50-100 year region) to communicate something that might be read by another person, one should not start by asking whether they can afford to write it down. Rather, they should start by asking why such communication is taking place at all. If, even in 100 years, a Presidental instruction is too hot for the nation to handle, long after all people involved and/or targeted are dead and buried (or, at least, dead and in cryogenic storage in Area 51), then perhaps that instruction should never be issued at all.
(If ultra-secure agencies regard 100 years as too short a time, add a 150-year rule, or a 200-year rule. The point is that future administrations may need that information for reasons of national security or national interest, and indeed are far more likely to do so to a far greater degree than any individual could possibly need to avoid personal criticism for recklessness and stupidity. Indeed, archivists are a vital ingredient in the prevention of recklessness and stupidity, whether that information is ever made available to the general public or not.)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
History records President Obama's words upon receiving news of [tragic event that has yet to occur]:
"omg, wtf?
no sleep 2night! cu"
I would hire a dev team experienced in developing government certified applications and extend the device in the proper way. Even it that will cost millions, it will be the best marketing invenstion ever (it seldom happens that you can bill development directly to the marketing budget). Beeing mention ten more times on slashdot (Blackberry present obama with beta-blackberry, Blackberry open some source code, gets the ceritfication, invents a new logo, pack it into a platinum-corates titanium frame erc. are worth more than ads you can seriously buy for money...)
Call it what it is.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
We have to pay somebody to keep track of the president's cell phone? Seriously? We trust him to be run the country, but he's incapable of keeping track of his cell phone? *Billions* of people all over the world manage to keep track of their phones, but we elect the one guy too stupid to do it himself? Sounds like a real winner.
I think that would solve all the problems listed here. Anyone have any plans drawn up?
The biblical description of the Antichrist is a prophet of peace that turns sour 3.71 years or so into his leadership or whatnaught. Whatever you want to believe in, I guess. Obamachrist! lol
/replying on the forums.
Not my fault they won't let him into the presidential guest house. He had to rent a Hotel. That's absolutely retarded for the incumbent president (which McCain publicly supported) which has publicly condoned torture and implicated the implementation of Waterboarding in GITMO on his last press interview. That's not any crime. That's a warcrime. (--Paraphrased Source: MSNBC commentary shows) I'd rather have Nixon than Bush, at least Nixon was consistently angry-toned. Obama's PhotoOps now look like he's lost his zeal or they couldn't afford their Photoshop CS4 License. He seems wiped out already but he's not yet president. He's not enjoying the celebrity life that he made up. The office of the celebrity elect. I can't understand why Obama can't look back on 2000-2008 (btw Bush stole the election! and contributed to 9/11) to move the whole country, the whole moral standings of it's people, and the whole world forward. He's certainly lost his "charisma" that got him elected but at least he doesn't need a teleprompt he just uses notecards and a glass of water. Bush can barely read a teleprompt.
However, I really don't see where all the Hype is coming from. I think it's the republicans and conservative folk that are keeping the topic active by
His blackberry could be modded to support hardware level encryption or remote-deletion or a ghost layer as well as password protection and autolocking.
Or he could keep two separate devices. Bush had a cellphone but that was before Hybrid devices really kicked off. Blackberrys are meant for business people, so with a VPN and a passphrase (4-bit pin) only he knows to unlock the phone for personal calls (exempt from Phone company logging I would suppose, I don't think there's a subpeona issue here but under the wiretapping act/electronics surveillance act, all communications companies are required to keep extensive logs and recordings) and a PGP passphrase hash that changes every 10 minutes and is 1024 bits long and protected by a atomic-clock synced coder box that has a biometric lock on it. Wirelessly backed up and equipped with a small scale self-destruct device with the military encryption that changes every 10 seconds. Security plan, implemented! THIS MESSAGE WILL NOW *NO CARRIER*
Omgsh Obama Scene Investigation (ObamaSI) folks, except the show doesn't have any actual computer scientists on it. I.e., CSI sucks too many unrealistic scenarios and too many autopsies.
I.e., he needs to hire me!
If he is activated on a BES, then he is using the government's email server, so any required backup and logging of his email can be done there. Also, on a blackberry, if you type the password wrong too many times (default is 10, but you can reduce that) it will wipe the device memory, likewise, on a BES, the admins can do a remote wipe, so any fears of it being lost at a diner and being used are pretty small. Likewise, they can lock out lots of other items, like SMS, other apps, and I believe other email sources as well from a BES. I don't see why he can't have one once the admins lock it down.
Xaotik Designs
Sounds like the engrish term for Blackberry.
I consider it a good sign that Barak Obama wants to keep his Blackberry. This, if anything, shows that he is willing to step up to a greater level of accessibility and responsibility. It is certainly a feather in his cap. Plus, I am sure RIM can develop a special Blackberry device that will allow Obama to safely have classified material transmitted to him.
This wasn't news when Bush was in office and he used a cell phone and a PDA too.
Bush did not receive anywhere near the level of scrutiny that Obama is now under.
First, the election debacle took our attention away.
Second, the culture at the time was not one that approved of criticism of a president-elect. We were supposed to "rally" behind our new leader, remember?
Third, Republicans historically are not held to as high standards as Democrats. (I'm sorry if that sounds trollish, but it's true!)
Now, with a Democrat preparing to take office during a time of extreme skepticism every little detail is paraded before us as a potential scandal. It's a good thing overall. I'd rather hear about Obama's Blackberry than about celebrity exploits.
oh, but this is obama. he's right up there with jesus. he's not just another human.
By "insane" I presume you mean "CALEA-compliant."
Or the first peace treaty over E-mail via Blackberry.
There could be all kinds of interesting firsts. I just love the fact that we have a president that actually has used the Internet first hand!!!
A president that can Google something for himself before making a decision.
Best of all he knows it's more then just a series of Tubes!
When I was a young hacker we actually got Regan on the phone while he was President. If only I actully would have had something to say. Instead we were just a bunch of scared kids getting a thrill.
I am just waiting till some one get's Obama's E-mail addresses.
For some young hacker this could either end up with a prison sentence or a cabinet position.
And just think presidential spam, soon he will have his fill of cheap Viagra adds. Then maybe we will see these spammers get there just dues.
I wonder if Obama@whitehouse.gov will work?
I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso
Make it a 30 second screen lock, and if you find you lost it, do a remote wipe.
I don't see how that is so damned complicated. Even if he loses it people keep track of everything "Mr. President, you have your socks, shoes, tie, OMG NO BLACKBERRY CALL THE IT DUDES!!!111!!!"
In a few moments the BB will be wiped, and with tracing software can be located. Solder the SIM in and it's easy to find too.
Jeez.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
Oh man, I think that's funny, let me ask some of my darker skinned brethren just to be sure.
I don't think this parent should be modded down though.
For god sakes everyone, it's not like everyone had to stop telling Irish jokes after JFK took office.
It's the spirit of the Joke that's important. I don't think this one was mean spirited. It is making fun of "political correctness" more then race.
I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso
Simply because the press won't push it as a problem. Rove using RNC accounts for business? Palin using online mail? Major scandal. Obama using private accounts for government business? Don't worry about it, he likes his Blackberry.
After the Bush executive branch 'lost' millions of emails in violation of the Presidential Records Act, and will probably never have a bit of legal trouble of their actions, why does legality matter?
Obama wants to bring change to the country then demand that laws get upheld and bring those to task who disregarded the Records Act millions of times. Don't want to tarnish a past President then at least disbar the white house counsel which may have known about it under Gonzales. Otherwise don't try to grandstand that you're following the law since it doesn't have any teeth whatsoever to be followed. Kinda like those other Dumb laws that were never taken off the books.
I don't think the Secret Service is going to let the prez carry around a homing device with a known frequency and easily traceable/trackable radio fingerprint. They're going to force him to use some military pocket radio device capable of anti-detection countermeasures.
Maybe his White House legal counsel will allow him to relay his SMS messages though this magic device and some White House firewall before going into the cloud... or Canada.
.
The deal is, anything on the President's personal blackberry is likely to have two characteristics:
1) It is confidential; i.e., it is very bad if an unauthorized person gets ahold of it
2) It is NOT integral; i.e., it is not very bad if all the information is lost
Therefore the solution is to encrypt everything on it, add a biometric fingerprint scanner, and automatically erase all the data if the biometric ID authentication fails.
I don't actually know whether RIM has the technology to do that, but even if they have to have custom-build one for the President it would be a huge PR coup.
Of course, it would probably have to be a custom job anyway, since (I don't think) it would be allowed to route mail through RIM's servers. But I don't have a BB, don't know how much about how it works, and could be totally wrong on this (especially if the mails themselves are encrypted).
News Flash: President Obama was killed today when he accidentally miss-keyed the self desctruct feature of his Blackberry as he put it back into his pocket....
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
I don't know about white house comm. But; in the Air Force we are beginning to have to support specially designed blackberry like devices that not only support all of your conventional on the go services but also classified voice and data, like this this one. I don't know why seemingly every Colonel General in the Air Force can have one of these but the president couldn't
We ignore he was born in Kenya, yet give a fuck that he uses a blackberry.
The Secret Service doesn't want the POTUS carrying around a transmitter with a unique ID that can be monitored and used to track his movements. Knowing the contents of his communications isn't the only security concern they have.
Have gnu, will travel.
You're posting a Bush insult on /., and he's still the most powerful man in the world. And you still live in your parents' basement. I'd say Bush has been more successful than you could ever dream to be... even if you do manage to move out of your parents' basement. Get a life and stop worshiping the one who's take our country down the toilet like Chicago.
He could always go insecure and just have an open Presidency, per his campaign promises.
Honestly, it would be a lot better for the country if he did. He would then have a lot more eyeballs on the country's issues, and as a great Finn once said, "With many eyeballs, all problems become shallow."
I like Obama and voted for him, but it takes balls, bigger ones than I think he has.
Use VPN for security. IMAP for email so all email can be saved from the server. Any texting or other items that fall through the crack are being captured by the NSA's domestic wiretapping program. They can just be polite and forward that to the Library of Congress for public record. Solved. Next problem. :-)
A blackberry can locate the president.
A couple weeks ago, while browsing around the library downtown, I had to take a piss. As I entered the john, Barack Obama -- the messiah himself -- came out of one of the booths. I stood at the urinal looking at him out of the corner of my eye as he washed his hands. He didn't once look at me. He was busy and in any case I was sure the secret service wouldn't even let me shake his hand.
As soon as he left I darted into the booth he'd vacated, hoping there might be a lingering smell of shit and even a seat still warm from his sturdy ass. I found not only the smell but the shit itself. He'd forgotten to flush. And what a treasure he had left behind. Three or four beautiful specimens floated in the bowl. It apparently had been a fairly dry, constipated shit, for all were fat, stiff, and ruggedly textured. The real prize was a great feast of turd -- a nine inch gastrointestinal triumph as thick as his cock -- or at least as I imagined it!
I knelt before the bowl, inhaling the rich brown fragrance and wondered if I should obey the impulse building up inside me. I'd always been a liberal democrat and had been on the Obama train since last year. Of course I'd had fantasies of meeting him, sucking his cock and balls, not to mention sucking his asshole clean, but I never imagined I would have the chance. Now, here I was, confronted with the most beautiful five-pound turd I'd ever feasted my eyes on, a sausage fit to star in any fantasy and one I knew to have been hatched from the asshole of Barack Obama, the chosen one.
Why not? I plucked it from the bowl, holding it with both hands to keep it from breaking. I lifted it to my nose. It smelled like rich, ripe limburger (horrid, but thrilling), yet had the consistency of cheddar. What is cheese anyway but milk turning to shit without the benefit of a digestive tract?
I gave it a lick and found that it tasted better then it smelled.
I hesitated no longer. I shoved the fucking thing as far into my mouth as I could get it and sucked on it like a big half nigger cock, beating my meat like a madman. I wanted to completely engulf it and bit off a large chunk, flooding my mouth with the intense, bittersweet flavor. To my delight I found that while the water in the bowl had chilled the outside of the turd, it was still warm inside. As I chewed I discovered that it was filled with hard little bits of something I soon identified as peanuts. He hadn't chewed them carefully and they'd passed through his body virtually unchanged. I ate it greedily, sending lump after peanutty lump sliding scratchily down my throat. My only regret was that Barack Obama wasn't there to see my loyalty and wash it down with his piss.
I soon reached a terrific climax. I caught my cum in the cupped palm of my hand and drank it down. Believe me, there is no more delightful combination of flavors than the hot sweetness of cum with the rich bitterness of shit. It's even better than listening to an Obama speech!
Afterwards I was sorry that I hadn't made it last longer. But then I realized that I still had a lot of fun in store for me. There was still a clutch of virile turds left in the bowl. I tenderly fished them out, rolled them into my handkerchief, and stashed them in my briefcase. In the week to come I found all kinds of ways to eat the shit without bolting it right down. Once eaten it's gone forever unless you want to filch it third hand out of your own asshole. Not an unreasonable recourse in moments of desperation or simple boredom.
I stored the turds in the refrigerator when I was not using them but within a week they were all gone. The last one I held in my mouth without chewing, letting it slowly dissolve. I had liquid shit trickling down my throat for nearly four hours. I must have had six orgasms in the process.
I often think of Barack Obama dropping solid gold out of his sweet, pink asshole every day, never knowing what joy it could, and at least once did, bring to a grateful democrat.
This is the man touting his "transparency" with the American public. Those of us who think the man is little more than a very slick used-car salesman (who has long-since oversold his case and has since his election been trying to back-down his true-believers and the media lapdogs who bend to his every whim) in a nice suit will laugh at the notion that he will actually be usefully-transparent with us. But, like his legions of naive believers, let's idealistically assume those Obammunists have their way.
So what? If Rod Blagojevich, Mayor Daley, and the rest of the Chicago crew -- that den of thieves of Crook County from which Barack is emerging -- haven't convinced you that more transparency in government is needed, nothing will.
Despite the more-limited powers enumerated by the Constitution, the Presidency has devolved into too-important a job to be entrusted to a single individual, ever. The POTUS, by design, is not a King. IMO, there is no email, phone call, written document, or word spoken, or any other moment in the President's life which should not be recorded and made available for all to see on the Internet (and though it would be popular for the purpose of outrage, I doubt there is much titillation to be had from Clinton's moments with Monica). *That* is true transparency -- the likes of which we will never see under any administration, ever -- not in the wildest fantasies of David Brin.
I could make exceptions for specific, i.e. technical details (dates, times, locations, force vectors, etc.) of ongoing or planned military offensives. But general discussions of such offensives? No (not that its lack is generally a concern anymore, given the evolved state of media attention towards governments).
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
Why? Because the changeover is in a world of hurt due very much in part to use of MS products in place of mail servers and file servers. A lot of smoke is needed to hide MS role in the loss and misorganization of federal records during the changeover. Focusing on the Blackberry does a good job of that and grabs attention easily.
As if a President has never left something crucially important behind before. Like, for instance, when Presidents have left the Nuclear Football carriers behind, forgetting about them for quite a while.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Yes, the last 8 years definitely taught us that.
Could you really tell if Obama switched blackberries midstream and started writing emails that weren't documented. we have this rule to preserve checks and balances and the freedom of information acts. if it's written, it must be recorded. somehow you all miss the point, the president chooses advisors, those advisors come to him with information, he makes decisions based on that information. running the united states is a big task, last thing i want his our president wasting his time googling or making youtube videos. i can just see the presidential blog now... there's plenty of other things obama needs to worry about than having a blackberry, for christ sake he's got a personal assistant that follows him around everywhere, that's his own real live flesh blackberry.
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No, they left behind the aide who carried the football. The football was right where it was supposed to be, with the aid who kept track of it.
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)
Barack: OMG, WTF w Iran
Biden: LOL maybe UR BFF HC can holla
Barack: Word
It's interesting that the author thinks there's no real infosec issues. I don't think they've shown that at all. You can have all the fancy-shmancy encryption you like on the president's device, but it doesn't matter worth a damn unless the same encryption exists on the devices of all the people that the president is going to be sending messages to. And that's a lot of mobile devices to keep secure.
Additionally, the idea that you can solve many issues by saying pragmatically "well, the president will just have to not use it except for low-security matters" just ignores what we know about how humans use IT. There's no very obvious dividing line between low-security and high-security matters -- lots of things exist in the fuzzy middle -- and inevitably, the president will be tempted to use the device to do real work, which will mean treating more and more of the fuzzy middle as low-security.
I think the matter should be quite clear. If President-elect Obama thinks that using this device would let him do his job job more efficiently then he has a responsibility to do so.
It would also go a long way to saying (as he himself said on Meet The Press the other day when talking about CIA officials) that he is going to focus on getting the job done, and not about covering thing up from lawyers.
Lastly it makes for a great step in trying to repair the image of the executive branch of US government in that the presumption is that what he writes doesn't NEED to be censored from public scrutiny.
"Somebody just has to be given the job of keeping track of the president's personal communication device." Well somebody is in charge of carrying the football (nuclear launch codes) And they have been "left" behind by many presidents!
Now THOSE would be interesting emails, and no doubt ones the public would have the right to know about.
You should have titled your post, "Obama's dingleberry dilemma."
Funny, I think it should be obvious to him alone why he should not use such a device. ....I see people all day on a blackberry, without ever accomplishing real work,
If everywhere you go, you need a secure line to talk to someone, or a cell, then you use that...
the blackberry is for people that have constantly people nagging them with emails and text messages, he will have someone do filtering on that for him, to know what he should be spending his precious time on,
yet it now becomes obvious it takes up too much time in their day for them to be productive.
I don't see the president having time to do any blackberrying.
I can see him sending a text message to his wife or kids to tell them he misses them, that would be ok, but the truth is, aside from that, if someone knows you have a blackberry, they will use that first to contact you, and his day will be spent with every politician using that to contact him , instead of the regular filtered channels.
Its not even a security issue, more then it is a productive one.
Ok for family, but everything else nay!
Princess Beatrice recently had her car stolen while she was under full security detail. One of the security people should have noticed that she left the keys in the car, but no one did.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/4165229/Thieves-steal-Princess-Beatrices-BMW-after-she-left-keys-in-ignition.html
He can switch to an Android device...
Since there is pretty much one Android device that means the only option is TMobile which is owned by Deutsche Telekom. Somehow presidential communications going through a foreign controlled mobile phone operator seems like just as bad an idea as using RIM which routes traffic through Canada. I guess they could switch it to AT&T if needed.
Here a good idea, let's issues a 3G laptop with a certified secure mail program on it to one of the Secret Service agents that follows him around all day. Then when they get an e-mail he can be timely alerted and he could dictate all responses to said SecretServiceBerry. Problem solved. In fact this is better then a blackberry, because you have a larger device to use. The only reason to carry a blackberry is because typically smaller devices are less of a hassle, no so with a SecretServiceBerry.
if the President has nothing to hide, then he shouldn't be worried right?
Is everyone just skirting over this or is it me? It doesn't matter if he had a HTC WM device, or a Palm or BlackBerry the issue is what he uses the device for.
There are multiple ways of securing many mobile devices, BlackBerry just happens to be easy, fast and very granular. RIM's NOC's make this possible.
In essence if you really wanted to you could hack the wireless side of things, or just wait until he left it somewhere/steal it, bung it in a Faraday cage and remove the data manually (although Iâ(TM)ve never found any info on how RIM employ data destruction methods to the NVRAM, Iâ(TM)ve been told by RIM on a training course if you attempt to remove the NVRAM chip to access the data externally, and your using content protection the chip will destroy its contents immediately â" love it if someone had any proper tech info on this but since its probably propriety I donâ(TM)t think anyone would.)
Basically if he wasn't so addicted to his mobile device and as such using it for many different things it probably wouldn't be a problem. But the risk mitigation based on how much he uses his BBerry is nion-impossible.
This isnâ(TM)t an issue with RIM or BB or mobile communications; itâ(TM)s what Obama uses mobile communications for.
All communications by the president are confidential. A written note, until cleared as otherwise, is treated as top-secret. The potus-elect, and the media making this mountain, need to get over it and accept the position for what it is. For god sakes, put the crackberry down.
VaporStream, A Chicago-based technology company focused on confidential messaging and corporate confidentiality, appears to have already solved this problem.
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I thought the secret service weren't too happy about the president carrying a radio transmitter routinely.
As a Blackberry Technician who has had training from RIM (I live and work in Australia), I understand how these things work.
As long as Barack connects to a BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server), all communication is secure between the Handset and the Blackberry Server (3DES - I dont think this is supported in the USA though as the FBI cant break it! LOL!).
Since the data on the Blackberry is A COPY of that on the mail and to some extent the Blackberry server (ie browsing the net on the BB goes through the BES's MDS), then there is no security issue.
Barack simply has to put up with Connecting to a BES with a strict IT Policy which downloads onto the HH to ensure security is maintained (and the IT Policy can log down programs and hardware to ensure only certain portions of the HH are used).
If he looses the device then the BES can simply issue a Lock command, wipe command or Kill command so no one can get access to it or use it under any circumstances...
Security issues? I dont think so... More like they CANT read his personal emails - thats more likely to be the issue!!!
Like firing prosecutors. Like if he fired Fitzgerald and the Blago prosecution kind of stalled, questions into contacts with Obama not asked. But the decision making behind the firing was not accessible by FOIA or Congress. To me that makes a huge scandal possibly worthy of impeachment. It would go nowhere if that did happen. It would be deemed not newsworthy, not worthy of criminal investigation.
Gotta love fascists. Truth is now modded Flamebait.