The Real Risks of Obama's BlackBerry

An anonymous reader writes "When the mainstream media first announced Barack Obama's 'victory' in keeping his BlackBerry, the focus was on the security of the device, and keeping the US president's e-mail communications private from spies and hackers. The news coverage and analysis by armchair security experts thus far has failed to focus on the real threat: attacks against President Obama's location privacy, and the potential physical security risks that come with someone knowing the president's real-time physical location. In this article, a CNET blogger digs into the real risks associated with the President carrying around a tracking device at all times."

Comments

Femto-cells

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Seems like using a portable femtocell and a private relay to some central government location would be enough to mitigate the problem. And besides, don't the secret service carry cell phones?/ If you can't track the prez, just track the people around him.

Seriously?

[i_am_socket]

They don't think he's already got a tracking device on him at all times anyway? It's calls "several dozen Secret Service agents." Pretty hard to miss, honestly.

Exploding battery risks far higher

[EmbeddedJanitor]

Make sure one of the Secret Service guys always carries the BB.

Seriously, this is just another case of illogical fear of "new" technologies. It is already easy to track him: just look for the long motorcade.

Knowing where the President is...

[93 Escort Wagon]

... is much less important, from a personal security standpoint, than knowing where he's going to be.

So what?

[Shrike82]

So let's imagine someone did actually manage to track the President using his Blackberry. Now that person could plan an assassination based on the Presiden't location? How is that more useful than knowing he'll be in location X at time Y based on a press release, or a public event?

The last link supposedly discusses the "risks" of a "trackable" President by supposing some would-be assassin could tell if the President was in the White House, or which car he was in out of several choices. Wouldn't this assassin be better off waiting for a public rally where the President's attendance, location (and probably the time of his attendance) are public knowledge?

This just strikes me as wild speculation with a healty dose of paranoia. Maybe I'm wrong, and I'm sure a hundred people will now cite many examples of how this could lead to "another JFK". Fire away people...