Obama’s Inevitable Crackberry Withdrawal
They need to be available to the ordinary user, and additional security always makes a device less convenient to use. They also need to be able to install code updates and open web pages, and that introduces some other vulnerabilities. A foreign power that was determined could almost certainly introduce a malicious application into a standard BlackBerry, and once they had, all is lost. (There are technical solutions for this problem in what is called “multilevel secure trusted systems.” One commercial example is Solaris 10 with Trusted Extensions. None of the commercial email systems is in any way “multilevel secure.”)
Then there are the legal issues: under the Presidential Records Act, any official communications from the President’s and Vice President’s Office must be retained, at least until the Archivist can confirm whether they must be preserved long term. This has been interpreted in recent years to include everything including the visitor log at the vice president’s residence. It would certainly include BlackBerry emails, even private ones. It was just this kind of issue that caused George W Bush to sign off his email completely just before his inauguration.
These really aren’t new issues; it’s only that they’ve become important to people outside the security and intelligence community just in the last few years. Clearly, we don’t want to risk the president’s online identity being stolen; a hacked email account could be a lot more than simply an embarrassment. But the retention requirements for even ordinary businesses have become onerous and expensive. Perhaps, while he’s trying to recover from the loss of his BlackBerry, President Obama might ask himself if there isn’t a better way to balance the legal requirements for records against the desire to email “How ’bout them Sox!” to a friend.
Charlie, the best thing I did in recent times was to give up my Blackberry. A more complete time waster does not exist. When it wasn’t buzzing, I was checking it to see why it wasn’t buzzing.
I now have a very dumb, plain cell phone. I also refuse now to use or pay for text messages. I have found actual phone calls are faster than texting, because sending or reading just one text is like trying to eat just one peanut.
Incidentally, as you know, in order to deny one aspect of traffic analysis, many crypto systems will send out a steady stream of traffic so that no down or up times can be discerned.
Just as one of the nurses in my office does, whose face I haven’t seen in a year, since it’s always bent over her Blackberry. Tap, tap, tap…
Plus the Blackberry system relies on servers in a foreign country (Canada). All traffic passes through them.
A lot of people in the military use them. They’re very popular among senior officers. I don’t see why Obama couldn’t use one for unclassified emails. I bet RIM would be more than happy to securely store copies of all White House unclassified emails and turn them over periodically to the federal government.
I hope he has serious withdrawal symtoms from the Blackberry and cigerettes.
Back in the 1960′s, I was part of an M.I. unit that specialized in communications intelligence. It is amazing how much can be learned from traffic even before cracking any encryption systems.
As President of the United States won’t he be “connected” at all times in one way or another? I’ve never heard a news report about a president not being “found” or “informed”. He’s gonna have people for that!! He won’t have a use for a blackberry and he’ll be fine…I think he’s going to be busy…
All of this is true to some extent. However, the Blackberry is one of the few systems which are considered ‘secure’ by the US Government. Beyond the basic RIM network security, there are additional third party options, like PGP which would implement additional layers of message encryption from, say, a White House email server to the Blackberry RIM server on their network. Depending on the configuration Blackberries can be among the most secure mobile devices available on the market.
In addition, for anyone to monitor email traffic to a subscribed Blackberry, would require a major compromise of one of two networks, either the secured private network (in this case the White House likely), or compromise of the RIM network (which currently meets or exceeds all security requirements set forth by the DoD).
However, no one in their right mind needs access to email 24/7… now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to check my Blackberry.
… which currently meets or exceeds all security requirements set forth by the DoD.
Ratatosk, as someone who has architected secure systems for DoD, I’m quite positive this isn’t true. From looking at the RIM site, it appears the server is certified as FIPS 140-2, which is sufficient for “sensitive but unclassified” only.
Maybe Obama could get a Fischer-Price toy Blackberry to keep his hands busy. I also know a site where you can order candy cigarettes. He’ll be just fine.
Charlie,
Oh, yes… I should have made it clear that it was not secure for classified data! I’m speaking solely about sensitive data, or personal data (the sort of stuff that he would probably communicate via email). Sorry that my comment wasn’t as clear as it should have been
Also, IIRC FIPS-140 is the encryption standard, rather than an overall assessment of their security posture. So FIPS-140 doesn’t discuss the security of RIM’s netowrk, but rather the encryption implementation that comes shipped with the Blackberry. RIM via 3rd party software can utilize higher grade encryption and additional security measures (like Kill Pills etc). The overall security posture of the RIM network, the RIM server etc. has been audited by the government and considered acceptable for non-classified information.
It’s been a minute since I reviewed the full standard for classified data, but I think as of 2003, any data that would be classified as Secret or higher can only exist on approved Trusted Systems, which exist on completely segregated networks. So there’s no way that RIM would meet those requirements.
So for anything that Obama COULD communicate via a non Trusted System, the Blackberry meets the criteria set forth.
Sorry if my first comment was a bit unclear.
Some years ago the company I worked for gave all the managers and supervisors pagers (remember those?)One of the senior managers, a wonderful old timer who knew just about everything about the company and was meticulous about communications with customers and other managers, when given his pager looked at it, said “Thats nice” put it in the top drawer of his desk and forgot about it. Same deal with cell phones. He finally got one, carried it around switched off and when asked why he couldn’t be reached said “I got this so I could call people, not so people could call me” He wasted no time on idle chatter and could do more work in an hour than most folks can do in a day.
10. doppelganglander: You made me laugh…your comment reminded me of my oldest son when he wanted a pager. I told him no so he took the garage door opener and clipped it to his waist band!!
I say Obama should keep on keeping on with his Blackberry. All of the info that’ll be passing through it will come in handy when Obama is subpoenaed someday after the general population realizes it’s been duped by The One.
I’m glad you’d mentioned PE Obama’s smoking.
Men’s Health magazine had PE Obama on their November cover. A magazine which shows individuals epitomizing health, fitness, etc., on their cover has PE Obama!
I’d written my displeasure in this magazine, pandering to politics and playing up a candidate. Below is my displeasure and less-than-impressive response.
Miss or Sir,
Hello. Being a dedicated reader to your magazine I was offended by your Sen. Barack Obama cover.
Your other covers show individuals who epitomize healthy lifestyles/living.
What WAS nice about Men’s Health is you steered away from political leanings, agendas.
Sen. Obama is a 47 year old politician. A smoker, an individual who was never a stand out or part of organized team sports for that matter. I spent half my 33 years in Colorado and am still a decent surfer.
Sen. Obama spent a majority of his life in Indonesia, Hawaii. He was recently photographed “Body surfing”. The same things 10 year old kids from the Midwest do when on vacation at the beach. A real “talent”.
Furthermore, Sen. Obama is a former cocaine addict.
George W. Bush is also a former cocaine addict though is still able to run a 7 minute mile. Perhaps he should be on your next front cover (insert sarc).
Again, your breaking your own rules for political
pandering is very disappointing. I’ll no longer be a reader/subscriber to your magazine.
Thank you.
On Mon, 11/3/08, ReaderService wrote:
From: ReaderService
Subject: Men’s Health: Obama cover
To:
Date: Monday, November 3, 2008, 7:45 PM
To our readers:
In the weeks since the November issue of Men’s Health hit mailboxes and newsstands, there has been an extraordinary outpouring of mail concerning our choice for the cover: Barack Obama. Some of you were excited to see a man you admired, some were grateful to learn about the presidential candidate from an MH perspective, and some of you felt betrayed by what you saw as a politically charged choice for the cover of your generally a-political magazine. Our selection of Senator Obama for the cover was based on two things:
1) he’s a man in the public eye, and worthy of a profile in Men’s Health, and
2) he’s a man squarely in our readers’ demographic who embodies many of the health, fitness, and success practices this magazine espouses.
So, in placing him on our cover, we were endorsing a lifestyle, and a record of achievement, not necessarily a candidate. That choice, ultimately, is every voter’s, alone. But as the profile clearly states, you don’t have to vote for Barack Obama the politician to learn something from Barack Obama the man. If you don’t agree with that choice, we invite you to enjoy the other 206 pages in the magazine, and take the usual measure of “useful stuff” from them. If we’ve caused you grief, our apologies. That’s not our usual approach to reader service. The December issue, we pledge, will be quite Obama-free.
Best regards,
The Editors of Men’s Health
I do appreciate your response though I still will not be reading Men’s Health in the future.
Your piece on Obama is a fluff piece. It’s too bad you didn’t inquire as to why Sen. Obama chose to go back to his hotel and work out rather than meeting/shaking hands with Iraqi troops. I believe that’s “45 minutes” he could’ve put to better use!
You went as far as to put in bold, “20 Heroes of Health & Fitness”. Mentioning Sen. Obama in the same sentence as Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong. Uhmmm, yeah. O.K.
Sen. Obama is “worthy” of a profile in Men’s Health. Why? How? The guy can’t even bowl!
1 of the reasons you’ve stated below in having Sen. Obama as your cover was for “Endorsing a candidate”, err, I meant his, “lifestyle”.
In endorsing “the man”, why hadn’t the picture been of Sen. Obama in workout clothing? Doing reps. Running. Something. Instead the guy was in a shirt & tie. Hmmm. Interesting look for a cover person of a health and fitness magazine.
Men’s Health has been around for 20 years now. Why hadn’t you approached more worthy faces in the spotlight? Television actor, now deceased Eddie Albert. Mr. Albert had an incredible workout regimen well into his late 80′s.
If wanting the “Presidential” treatment, the late Pres. Gerald Ford was in phenomenal shape into his latter years. He’d been a fantastic high school and college multi-sport athlete who was pirsued by a couple professional sports organizations.
What about JC Watts? A businessman, former Oklahoma politician and CFL player. His resume reads A LOT thicker than Sen. Obama’s and has been able to keep the same job for greater than 4 years, again surpassing Sen. Obama’s ‘accomplishments’.
Barack Obama is a smoker. Former cocaine addict. Either one of these addiction’s shouldn’t “Embody” your cover. Then again, Men’s Health is apparently buying into the “Change” mantra as well..
Paul_Unalaska: Good points, but lest we forget: George H.W. Bush golfs, jogged well into his sixties, tandem skydived from 13,000′ at the age of 80, and caught a 134-lb. tarpon at 83!
Coverboy, my butt: he deserves his own special issue!
somercet: Off topic, one of my favorite books is Maugham’s, ‘The Razor’s Edge’. For an odd reason I prefer Bill Murray’s take on the big screen rather than the earlier released movie. I digress.
George H.W. Bush is a phenomenal person. What a life he’s leading. Nonetheless, Men’s Health stunned me. It’s similiar to having ‘Erkyl’ on the cover.
I’m a reading junkie and am most disappointed to see hype overcome substance, even in that arena.