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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."
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.
Aw come on, he's the first US President that could use one. :)
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
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
I think the reason he doesn't just say "I want this" and have it be done is not because he can't, but because he realizes that he has advisors to figure out if it is a good idea. It could be that all of the issues could be handled, but that doing so would cost a lot of tax payer dollars.
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 hired to know gems like this: All data transferred via BlackBerry devices is encrypted and travels through RIM â(TM)s central server in Canada .
You can't take the sky from me...
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.
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.
Can't figure why... I mean, it's not like he has anything to hide, right?
That sinking feeling deep in your gut when you KNOW you screwed up bad summed up with: {head desk} {head desk}
I'm sorry, how is "President Elect" imaginary? It's a widely-used term, and everybody knows what it means. And BTW, it's been around for about three centuries, according to the OED.
But even if it had been invented last year, it wouldn't be "imaginary", not if people are actually using it.
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.
I think his decision at that moment said a lot about what his priorities would be as President: it was more important for his ass to be completely covered than it was to continue using the tools that would maximize his productivity.
It will be interesting to see, eight years later, with electronic communication methods more pervasive and essential than ever, if President Obama will make the same choice.
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.
When you're a real girl, and not just a girl in training, you'll have reason to complain!