Like most folks in the beltway, President-elect Barack Obama is a Blackberry addict. Obama lives on his handheld, using the device to stay in touch with the “outside” world. With all the idle time sitting in a vehicle, transiting in helicopters and airplanes, a Blackberry is an essential device for staying in touch with everything from information to important people. Unfortunately for the President-elect, government lawyers are poised to issue an opinion may ultimately force Obama to give up the one habit he should be allowed to keep, even if such a policy is completely asinine!
Fortunately, Obama is fighting tooth and nail for the capability to continue mobile computing with his Blackberry. Visionaries like Obama often-times have to parlay these types of fights in an attempt to move forward – in this case, allowing a sitting president to do what has become all but commonplace today.
President-elect Barack Obama has yet to relent, but he conceded that he might be losing the battle to keep his independent lifeline to the outside world.
“I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry,” Mr. Obama said Wednesday. “They’re going to pry it out of my hands.”
According to government lawyers, allowing a sitting President to wield a Blackberry is problematic for a couple reasons. The first, and what should be the most important, is information security – email is a huge vulnerability and subject to far too many exploits, many of which the president is likely not aware. The second concern is the Presidential Records Act (PRA), which states all official White House correspondence will be available for public review – the public, not the president, owns these records. NY Times wrote the following in an article late last year:
But before he arrives at the White House, he will probably be forced to sign off. In addition to concerns about e-mail security, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas. A decision has not been made on whether he could become the first e-mailing president, but aides said that seemed doubtful.
The PRA apprehension appears to stem from government lawyers apparent misunderstanding of how a Blackberry functions. A Blackberry is merely an extension of a Microsoft Outlook Inbox – in fact, the Blackberry Enterprise Server ties in to a corporate Exchange server. Email is stored on the server, which allows for it to be properly catalogued in accordance with the rules set forth in the PRA.
Forcing the President-elect to hand over his Blackberry is just plain asinine. While Blackberry’s are not free from hacking, they are very secure devices when security is not an afterthought – so long as security is implemented from the inception of the effort to add a Blackberry Enterprise Server, the risk can be low and manageable, rather than forcing users to give up devices they rely upon.
RIM has built a number of security mechanisms in to Blackberry’s, making it increasingly more difficult to retrieve data from a lost device. Implementing a strong password policy and screen-locking policy facilitates ensuring prying eyes will have to work pretty damn hard to get to the goods if the device is lost.
Turning on the built-in “content protection” is an additional security measure which can be used to protect the data on the handheld. This feature encrypts email, address book entries and other similarly sensitive data. Mere connecting a lost device to a hard drive for simple forensics is not so cut and dry – the data must be decrypted to be read.
Obama is fairly tech savvy, and definitely the most technically competent of any president the US has seen to-date. If it meant allowing him to keep his Blackberry, I am certain he would be willing to deal with the many security mechanisms designed to protect both the handheld and the president. After all, the governments top information technologists should be working in the White House, ensuring the Office of the President of the United States has the most secure network of any government network installed today. Certainly these people can dream up a viable solution for the President-elect!
Unfortunately, this is what our government has come to – we are more interested in cover your ass than providing solutions to tough problems. These lawyers should be looking for ways to allow Obama to keep his Blackberry rather than telling him he will not keep the handheld. Our government has turned soft and here we are, thank you very much.
I can only hope that Obama continues to fight the good fight. We are continually migrating to a mobile computing world, and it is increasingly more important that our government stay in-touch while mobile. This fight is for future presidents, to ensure they can continue to compute while away from the office.
And as an aside, we can hope that since Obama is an Apple fan the government will finally realize the utility Mac’s offer!
It does seem like potential risk is as good as 100% exploitable risk in their eyes. This mixture of tech and tech ignorance is painful to watch. It could be a hard thing for the old boys in the government to wrap their heads around.
January 11, 2009 @ 09:34
I hope he continues to fight the cause, also, and I think he will continue. There hasn't been an issue like this before, regarding a president and his "Blackberry", etc. Times have changed, and the "good old boys" need to get their heads out of their you-know-whats.
January 11, 2009 @ 10:16
Completely agreed. It's time to pull their heads out of their collective asses and start working solutions rather than roadblocks!
January 11, 2009 @ 10:19
Indeed, it is pretty apparent the guys are unable to wrap their heads around such a simple idea. Now I work network security for the government and would be very hesitant as well. However, we're talking unclassified email, not classified.
Above and beyond that, if implemented properly, the largest security risks are quite easy to mitigate methinks!
January 11, 2009 @ 10:18
He needs to contact the NRA ASAP. I believe there is a Blackberry and iPod clause in the phrase "pry it from my cold dead hands"
January 12, 2009 @ 01:10
Totally agree. I'm sure Barrack is a big boy and can handle is national security responsibility. Give him a set of rules [just like any other Blackberry user] and let him use the damn thing. What's the big deal?
January 12, 2009 @ 01:42
Totally agree. I'm sure Barack is a big boy and can handle is national security responsibility. Give him a set of rules [just like any other Blackberry user] and let him use the damn thing. What's the big deal?
January 12, 2009 @ 01:42
Maybe he wants an iPhone? :P
January 12, 2009 @ 11:12
I read Techmiso because I am not a tech, so please excuse in advance the occasional ignorant post. However, thinking out loud here, we have all seen the movie where they triangulate the bad guy's position from his cell phone. Could a terrorist, spy or assassin not do the same from Obama's Blackberry? If not that, are there other security risks beyond a password breach that we might be missing here? Just a thought…???
January 12, 2009 @ 05:02
That is not possible in real life, only in the movies. Triangulation is not as cut and dry as they make it look in movies like Eagle Eye, etc.
There certainly are additional security risks outside a password breach. The device will most likely be riddled with unclassified but sensitive information which the government would not want leaked. This data could potentially be exploited if the Blackberry is not properly secured.
Not completely foolproof but definitely there is a way to get the risks to a manageable level methinks.
January 12, 2009 @ 11:11
This sounds like a case for MythBusters. At the very least, maybe a good plot for the next season of 24. "Watch Jack foil a terrorist plot to hack into the president's GPS enabled BlackBerry, turn it on while the president sleeps, and fire a missile into the White House following the GPS signal. Tonight at 9!"
January 12, 2009 @ 11:35
I am sorry, I disagree. Blackberries are extremely risky and very exploitable—an abomination!!! However, if he uses it like he would use a pay phone, a post card, or a clear radio transmission. With the clear understanding that “it will be intercepted” with absolute certainty, then I think he should be able to keep it. I agree the issue of PRA is absolute nonsense all emails go through the BES and the exchange servers which need to be recorded anyways.
January 12, 2009 @ 11:07
I do not disagree – all handhelds are risky devices. However, I still think that should not preclude his staff of providing solution to this dilemma. There is certainly a way to allow Obama to continue to function with a Blackberry while mitigating as much of the risk so that it is manageable.
That's what information security is all about – managing risk.
January 12, 2009 @ 11:09
This is the freakin' President of the United States you're talking about here. Even if you get the security right, there is simply too much potential for human error, which could result in danger to his life. They'll never let him keep such a thing.
January 12, 2009 @ 11:18
I commented 'for' the Blackberry up in this thread. But, Darian raised a great point — forcing me to rethink it: What about the tracking of his Blackberry signal for say, terrorism? Assassination? How can his staff solve that dilemma?
January 12, 2009 @ 12:11
I addressed that in my response to Darian – in short, quick and easy triangulation is something you only see in movies. Again, though, this boils down to proper implementation of requisite security protocols.
If there is a triangulation concern because, say, POTUS is stationary – merely implement a policy which ensures the device is turned off at all times, with the exception of the time necessary to download new data. The RF signal can simply be shutdown, mitigating any potential triangulation threat.
It all comes back to ensuring security is foremost on everyone's mind!
January 12, 2009 @ 12:30
I agree with Scott on this one. I see many of the points people are making, but you guys seem to have passed over Scott's argument, or challenge to our government. Rather than take the easy route, find a solution that will allow the President to continue doing what is common place today.
The majority of us would feel like we lost a limb if we lost our iPhones or laptops. The government should find a solution to the proposed security threats listed by other users above.
January 13, 2009 @ 02:48
Here is another thread on the topic of tracking a blackberry signal with some interesting points: http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f…
January 13, 2009 @ 07:55
I'd say you could kill GPS by turning it off at the device. But, I'm
still hedging my bet that triangulating isn't that movie-like. Check
this 2002 MIT article out: Cell
phone locator system holds promise for new 911 service
If that's an article from 2002, consider where the technology might be
at today….
January 13, 2009 @ 12:51
Wow, what a great resource! Thanks for sharing this
March 18, 2009 @ 23:27