The Follow is from an Article post on RCR Wireless and can be found here.
Commander in chief gets to keep treasured smartphone
January 23 2009 - 11:36 am ET | Colin Gibbs | RCR Wireless News
Barack Obama has won the battle of the BlackBerry.
The president will be allowed to use his BlackBerry “to stay in touch with senior staff and a small group of personal friends,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. “The use will be limited and the security enhanced.”
The decision was a compromise between Obama — who earlier this month told the New York Times “I’m still fighting” to hold on to the BlackBerry — and Secret Service protectors and government lawyers who voiced security concerns, Gibbs said. The spokesman declined to discuss specific security features or outline usage constraints.
Research In Motion Ltd., which has long dominated the mobile e-mail space, is widely praised for the security features of its BlackBerry, which uses RIM’s Elliptic Curve Cyptography encryption technology. Government personnel had expressed concerns not just about messaging security, though, but also about GPS information that can pinpoint the location of the device within feet.
Legal, political concerns
Just as importantly, the president must deal with a tangle of issues CEOs never have to worry about, according to Joe Hagin, who as George W. Bush’s deputy chief of staff helped craft White House policies regarding the use of wireless devices.
“The president’s particular issue goes beyond a technical issue,” explained Hagin, who now serves on the board of SMobile Systems, a Columbus, Ohio-based developer of mobile security software. “In addition to the technical challenges, you have a legal and political issue, which are tougher to solve. On the legal side you have records-management policies in place. Every one of those e-mails he sends on that BlackBerry becomes a presidential record.”
Which can be especially problematic, Hagin said, if Obama receives those e-mails directly. Even an unsolicited message can become subject to those policies once it hits the president’s eyes under the Presidential Records Act, meaning an e-mail from a lunatic can easily become a legal headache — and, potentially, a public-relations nightmare.
“That stuff is usually weeded out by the staff; the controversial stuff is not winding up on the president’s desk,” Hagin continued. “But when the president is sitting there with a BlackBerry, there is no filter. It goes right to his eyes. And that’s when it goes from a technical issue to a legal issue.”
And while there are “narrow exceptions” for personal communications, Gibbs said, “the presumption from (White House Counsel Gregory Craig) is that they will be subject to the Presidential Records Act.”
$3,350 alternative
Given the constraints placed on his BlackBerry, it’s possible Obama will also carry one of the very few mobile devices cleared by the National Security Agency. Industry insiders have predicted he may use the Sectera Edge, a $3,350 smartphone manufactured by government contractor General Dynamics.
Regardless of the ultra-high-level ramifications, though, the tug-of-war over Obama’s beloved BlackBerry highlights a mobile security space that is sure to heat up as smartphones gain market-share. While the industry has long been overhyped by companies looking to use scare tactics to sell their wares, hackers and other nefarious types are sure to expand their focus beyond PCs as phones are increasingly used as on-the-go computers.
The problem, according to those in the mobile-security segment, is one of education on the part of the user and IT departments. The tools are there to address the overwhelming number of security threats, some developers say, but most people don’t know they exist — or that they may be necessary. And the answer isn’t for business types to limit the use of their smartphones, SMobile CTO Dan Hoffman said.
“It’s the balance between productivity and security, and that very much is a balance,” Hoffman opined regarding Obama’s struggle to hold on to his BlackBerry. “People run across it every day, and this is not different. It’s just a little bit more high-profile.”
Washington bureau chief Jeffrey Silva contributed to this article.
My Thoughts:
As Bad as it is to part with one's favorite mobile phone, it's also a pain to carry two devices, although from some friends of mine swear that CNN called the Sectera Edge a "Blackberry" it doesn't hide the fact that I was correct about Obama carrying two devices. It goes to show that no matter how much you like to dispute reality, reality will also be the way it was meant to be. If CNN really called it a Blackberry then why would you believe them in the first place? I know wireless and I know to look for more supporting outlets other then CNN. And I hope this article finally puts it to rest. PWNED!
