DiplomatThere’s a lot of talk lately about Obama’s Blackberry and what choices he will have once he enters his presidency. What initially shocked me was the lack of understanding by the general public when it comes to secure devices.

Engadget shed some light on the only two devices NSA has approved for use by government and DoD personnel.

The NSA approval process is not an easy thing to get through.  Both the General Dynamics’ Sectera Edge and L-3 Communications’ Guardian are NSA Type 1 approved smartphones.

For the uninitiated, Wikipedia defines Type 1 encryption as the following:

In cryptography, a Type 1 product is a device or system certified by the National Security Agency (NSA) for use in cryptographically securing classified U.S. Government information.

Type 1 certification is a rigorous process that includes testing and formal analysis of (among other things) cryptographic security, functional security, tamper resistance, emissions security (EMSEC/TEMPEST), and security of the product manufacturing and distribution process.

What everyone doesn’t seem to understand is these are both pretty slick devices. They can handle wireless communications up to Top Secret and email up to Secret. Anyone who has been in the military knows that crypto hardware tends to be massive and made to take a pounding.

To fit Type 1 encryption into a package this small is pretty amazing. I have played with a demo unit of the Sectera Edge and was pretty impressed. It has two separate banks of memory, two separate USB inputs, and can change between secure/unsecure in a single button push.  It can connect to GSM, CDMA, and WiFi networks (both unsecure/secure networks). Let’s see your phone from Sprint do that.

Ok, so it does run WinMO, but I am sure there is some GD engineer with a test unit running OSX or Android! Did I mention you drop this thing in a puddle, use it while skydiving, and use it the desert without any issues?

So before you knock these type of devices as the ugly ducklings of the smartphone world, imagine how many add-ons it would take to get your iPhone or Blackberry up to the same level of functionality.  These may be ugly but they were not made for the “my phone is so kawaii, check out the faux blinged-out heart i just bedazzled on hot pink Disney themed phone” type of crowd.