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NSA Suggested Clinton Use A $4,750 Windows CE PDA (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes from an article on Ars Technica: When former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was pushing to get a waiver allowing her to use a BlackBerry like President Barack Obama back in 2009, the National Security Agency had a very short list of devices approved for classified communications. The General Dynamics' Sectera Edge and L3 Communications' Guardian were the two devices built for the Secure Mobile Environment Portable Electronic Device (SME PED) program. They were the only devices anyone in government without an explicit security waver (like the one the president got, along with his souped-up BlackBerry 8830) could use until as recently as last year to get mobile access to top secret encrypted calls and secure e-mail. At the time Clinton was asking for a phone, only the Sectera Edge was available (the Guardian was running behind in development) and it required multiple server-side and phone-side e-mail additions, desktop synchronization software, and other supporting products. The "Executive Kit" version of the Edge, priced for government purchase at $4,750, included: Type 1 Sectera Edge (GSM or CDMA) device plus: Executive Carry Case, Leather Holster Travel Charger, Red/Black USB Cables, Vehicle Charger, Earbud, Stylus 10-pack, microSD Card with User Manual, Spare Battery, Privacy Shield 4-pack, Antivirus Software, Apriva Email Client and Perpetual Rights fee and Office Suite for Windows CE.
It's totally safe; we totally can't hack it. Don't get one of those cheap devices, or an iPhone, because we'd be screwed.
"No.. I know better than the NSA. I'll use what *i* want and there's nothing you can do about it!"
And so far... shes right about that last part..
A BlackBerry was *not* good enough for the President. A one-off highly modified, custom device that looks and mostly works like BlackBerry was.
I think the NSA was like: "We hated doing this, but if the President gets this, we can at least get away with saying it is a one-off. If we give it to Clinton, every cabinet member and every person who thinks they are as important as a cabinet member is going to want one. Also, the President is our boss and we have to kiss his ass. She's not our boss, so fuck her entitled ass."
Secure equipment is no joke. It's understandable that no one wants a shitty, overpriced Windows CE phone, but it would be even more expensive to just ignore the program and give everyone what they want, creating one-offs for whoever. These are supposed to be civil *servants*.