“One reason to curb presidential BlackBerrying is the possibility of eavesdropping by hackers and other digital snoops. While Research In Motion offers encryption, the U.S. government has stricter requirements for communications security,” McCullagh reports.
“Fortunately for an enthusiastic e-mailer-in-chief, some handheld devices have been officially blessed as secure enough to handle even classified documents, e-mail, and Web browsing,” McCullagh reports. “One is General Dynamics’ Sectera Edge, a combination phone-PDA that’s been certified by the National Security Agency as being acceptable for Top Secret voice communications and Secret e-mail and Web sites.”
McCullagh reports, “The price is $3,350 with a two-year warranty, a princely sum that’s reflected in the Pentagon-worthy price tags for accessories: a simple adapter for a lighter plug costs $100. (Never again should you complain about how much your civilian analogue costs.)”
MacDailyNews Take: Actually, Mr. McCullagh, we will continue to complain about our “civilian analogue costs,” thank you very much, but not as loudly we do about the government pissing away taxpayers’ money.
McCullagh continues, “The Sectera runs a mobile version of Microsoft Windows, including versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Windows Media Player. The NSA claims that the installed versions of Internet Explorer, WordPad, and Windows Messenger are good enough for data that’s classified at a level of Secret. Presumably the federal spooks have found a way to protect IE from the numerous security flaws that continue to plague the Internet’s most popular browser.”
MacDailyNews Take: We wouldn’t presume a damn thing except that if you follow the money, you’ll probably find out why the company that’s stolen the most is the one that just so happens makes the software for the government’s fugly mobiles. For reference:
• US Department of Homeland Security’s border screening system was crashed by Windows Zotob worm – November 03, 2006
• US Department of Homeland Security: patch Microsoft Windows now or risk complete system compromise – August 10, 2006
• CCIA wants U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security to reconsider buying ‘insecure Microsoft software’ – August 29, 2003
• U.S. Department of Homeland Security says Windows vulnerable to attack – August 01, 2003
• Department of Homeland Security chose Microsoft due to time and money limitations – July 21, 2003
• U.S. Department of Homeland Security awards enterprise agreement to Microsoft – July 15, 2003
So, follow the money to figure out how one department can recommend against using Windows due to insecurity, then buy Windows PCs, then six weeks later again warn against using Windows due to insecurity only to get infected and crash systems designed to protect the very citizens who paid for the piece of crap Windows PCs in the first place.
Blago’s not the exception; he’s the rule. And the government at the highest levels is incompetent because the truly smart people have real jobs, they’re not damaged idiots who crave the spotlight and/or feel the compulsion to make rules for everyone in lame attempts to self-validate. Yes, there are good, smart people in government jobs; too bad they’re too smart to run for higher office. In government, the higher you go, the more incompetent they seem to be. Truly intelligent people don’t run for major political office and put themselves and their families through complete hell at the hands of people who are even more damaged than themselves (national media types) in order to land what are – even at the highest levels – mediocre-paying (relatively speaking) government jobs.
McCullagh continues, “Even though President Bush enjoys the same access to NSA-certified handhelds, he has never resumed his daily e-mail habit from the days went he went by the humble moniker of G94B@aol.com. At the time, Karen Hughes, one of Bush’s closest aides, said that the president chose to abandon e-mail because of public records laws. That includes the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, and the Presidential Records Act of 1978.”
“Federal law does explicitly exempt from disclosure any “personal records” that do not relate to the president’s official function. Those include electronic records that are “of a purely private or non-public character” and don’t relate to official duties; the law lists diaries, journals, notes, and presidential campaign materials as examples. Similarly, FOIA prevents files from being released if the disclosure would significantly jeopardize ‘personal privacy,'” McCullagh reports. “In other words, Obama could choose to keep e-mailing judiciously, and trust his lawyers and the law to fend off overly nosy journalists and historians.”
McCullagh reports, “If nothing else works, Obama can always turn to Bush for some tips. Not his immediate predecessor, but former President George H.W. Bush, a late-in-life convert to the joys of e-mail. Bush the Elder has been quoted as saying: ‘I’m what you might call a black belt wireless e-mailer.'”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Rob” for the heads up.]
It’s likely that the soon-to-be President will have to refrain from mobile communications altogether. Regardless of whether the iPhone received NSA security approval, and could securely communicate strictly via encrypted channels, any mobile device could be considered a liability.
For example, all Blackberry traffic is routed through the main servers in Waterloo, Ontario Canada. Routing secure communications traffic of the President of the United States through servers in a foreign country is an incredible security liability. Should a third party be able to intercept and extract the communications of the President on the Blackberry servers, it could deeply compromise the security of the United States. Not good.
Even if mobile communications traffic from a handheld device used by the President were made secure, an intelligence agency of another foreign power could potentially use this signal as a homing beacon to the President’s exact location. Again, not good.
Don’t get me wrong. I am seriously addicted to my iPhone, and I also use a Blackberry (although it’s probably not long for this world). The difference between you and me, and the President of the United States is night and day. The level of responsibility and threat to the safety/security of the President is high to a point that few of us can clearly comprehend the threats he faces every moment. What for us is an instrument of freedom is for any President, a potential point of security compromise. That is why a President has trusted assistants. Put another way, it’s why Osama bin Laden stopped using a satellite phone.
If I wanted to spy on some of our deepest secrets, or hunt down the most powerful man on earth, his handheld device would be the first place I would look. In this day an age, foreign powers that are not necessarily friendly to the United States are increasingly using electronic warfare as a key weapon. For this reason, those responsible for the security of the President and of our top secrets will likely ask that the President hand over his handheld before he takes the oath of office.
If they can’t fund decent handhelds out of a $3.1 trillion budget, something is seriously wrong!
So apart from having to deal with the economy and stave off terrorists, he may have to fight with WinMo problems too? If that happens, maybe he’ll ask for a raise.
I heard Obama was having dinner with Rush at George Will’s house.
Another thought, loved you post. While I take it seriously and have no qualms about it, it makes me chuckle a bit, thinking back to 7-11 uh, wait, that’s a store, I mean 9-11. At the time the finger was pointed to that foreign country of Canada (as you so often do, there are some very nice insults that G. W. Bush has provided since his inaugural speech) but (and please correct me if I am wrong) it was shown later that this was not the case.
Consider for a moment though that email (or any communication for that matter) has the potential of not being secure. The president could have the most sophisticated super encrypted email system that is American based…but it would be compromised the minute he sends an email to someone in a foreign country.
That email will have to go through a router of a foreign country. That email will end up on a computer in a foreign country. That email may end up on a computer running (gasp) Windows that happens to be full of spyware, or gets stolen…in a foreign country no less.
Even restricting email to people within the states is no guarantee as their computers might be compromised. Security and communication relies on a flow to and from so you would have to control both ends to have that sort of security.
“the Pentagon-worthy price tags for accessories: a simple adapter for a lighter plug costs $100.”
“MacDailyNews Take: Actually, Mr. McCullagh, we will continue to complain about our “civilian analogue costs,” thank you very much, but not as loudly we do about the government pissing away taxpayers’ money.”
That would be the Pentagon PISSING away taxpayer money. They are not the government – yet.
“Bill Clinton sent only two e-mail messages as president and has yet to pick up the habit.”
And both were to Monica Lewinsky – “Uhhh…I need that cigar back.”
@ Stuff:
True, “its just a reality that windows is a part of life”, but that does not mean it’s a *good* thing that it’s “part of life”. Cancer is a part of many people’s lives. Are we just supposed to accept cancer? No. We fight it. Both as individuals and as a society. It’s evil and must be defeated. No matter how hard it is or how long it takes. Windows is evil. It must be defeated.