Obama to keep his Blackberry

[LeMansX5]

January 22, 2009 (IDG News Service) President Barack Obama will indeed keep his beloved BlackBerry, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on Thursday.

"He has a BlackBerry through a compromise that allows him to stay in touch with senior staff and a small group of personal friends in a way that use will be limited and security enhanced to ensure his ability to communicate, but to do so effectively and do so in a way that is protected," Gibbs said.

Obama has often been seen using his BlackBerry and has professed his attachment to it. But the technology community has wondered if he would continue using the device once he became president, since it isn't rated for the highest security standards approved by the government.

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http://www.computerworld.com/action/...source=NLT_SEC

[Wagner]

Isn't going to for long.

[vinuneuro]

Just get him a pigeon and let him be on his way.

[MrLabGuy]

NSA Adviser: Mr President...We need you to stop using the BlackBerry for reasons of National Security.

Obama: Screw that! I cant live without my CrackBerry so you'll just have to chill. National Security My Ass.

[Juanted]

1. It's not a Blackberry per se. It's a Sectera Edg, built by General Dynamics.
2. The Sectera WAS ratified by the NSA as a safe device with which to communicate secret or sensitive information.
3. By the way, though (apparently) not as secure as the Sectera, Blackberry messaging is secure (Over-the-Air transmission is encrypted).

The government obviously won't disclose the technology, but I'll bet they are using 256-bit, 3DES (triple Data Encryption Standard) or AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) asymmetric encryption, with some sort of key exchange like Diffie-Hellman. AES is expected to have a life expectancy of 20 years or so before someone cracks it.

In other words, it's secure stuff. Obviously, NOTHING is 100% secure, but this is about as close as it gets to it. I read Uncle Sam spent $18M. That will buy you a lot of security.

Juan

[Wagner]

Originally Posted by Kaefer

1. It's not a Blackberry per se. It's a Sectera Edg, built by General Dynamics.
2. The Sectera WAS ratified by the NSA as a safe device with which to communicate secret or sensitive information.
3. By the way, though (apparently) not as secure as the Sectera, Blackberry messaging is secure (Over-the-Air transmission is encrypted).

The government obviously won't disclose the technology, but I'll bet they are using 256-bit, 3DES (triple Data Encryption Standard) or AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) asymmetric encryption, with some sort of key exchange like Diffie-Hellman. AES is expected to have a life expectancy of 20 years or so before someone cracks it.

In other words, it's secure stuff. Obviously, NOTHING is 100% secure, but this is about as close as it gets to it. I read Uncle Sam spent $18M. That will buy you a lot of security.

Juan

Your forgetting that every single digital POTUS conversation is archived, this "phone" will be a nightmare. Guaranteed he turns it back in before 90 days.

[Thunder22]

Wait until he leaves it in a cab, we're all f*cked

[Thunder22]

It's huge btw -

http://www.gdc4s.com/documents/GD-Sectera_Edge-w.pdf

[vinuneuro]

Holy crap, I think he'll change his mind about it quickly! Why does it need to be so huge? Aren't the security issues software based?

[Thunder22]

Originally Posted by vinuneuro

Holy crap, I think he'll change his mind about it quickly! Why does it need to be so huge? Aren't the security issues software based?

It looks like it might be because it's got double the # of ports, 1/2 secured 1/2 unsecured.