Obama To Get Secure BlackBerry 8830

CWmike writes "President Barack Obama is set to receive a high-security BlackBerry 8830 soon, The Washington Times reported today. The device is said to be in the final stages of development at the National Security Agency, which will check that its encryption software meets federal standards. It might not be ready for months. It was reported that Obama will be able to send text and e-mail messages and make phone calls on the device, but only to those with the secure software loaded on their own devices. The list includes First Lady Michelle Obama and top aides. The security software is made by Genesis Key, whose CEO, Steven Garrett, is quoted as saying: 'We're going to put his BlackBerry back in his hand.' The Sectera Edge was pegged in January by analysts as the top device choice because of its reputation for secure data communications when used by other federal workers. And there are many reasons why Obama might have been told 'no' on his BlackBerry. But Obama may wish he had chosen a Sectera if BlackBerry has more outage problems like its latest last week, which meant no mobile e-mail for hours across the US."

iPhone vs. Crackberry - an issue of encryption

[SrWebDeveloper]

I'm anxious to see when Apple will implement both data and transmission mandatory encryption on the iPhone for government and medical use. I attended an "iPhone and Government" meeting at one of Apples facilities in Reston, Va. the other day, with corporate representatives on hand to listen to the feedback of various agency IT/CIO folks and the concensus was Apple is working the DHS, OMB and other agencies to determine how Apple will pursue this. Being the iPhone was introduced only 20 some months ago, and version 3.0 of their OS is due later this year, their growth has been phenomenal, and finally they are devoting resources to the very vocal government sector who has hounded Apple to fully encrypt with sensible remote management and rollout.

For those not aware, the iPhone accounts for 60% of all combined wireless web traffic, offers Wi-Fi support in addition to 3G, and there are over 30,000 apps developed by 50,000 registered app developers. All apps reside in a sandbox, i.e. each has its own keychain of data and content and each requires a signed Apple security certificate authority to even run on the iPhone.

Many enterprise level apps already use proprietary encryption of data and transmission, password authentication and offer remote wipe, but we in the government await complete standardization of those (i.e. FDCC) as well as a vetted C&A process to ensure data integrity and performance.

It's just a matter of time, according to Apple, that Obama and the White House IT Dept. might consider trading in his Crackberry for the much more powerful and user friendly iPhone.

Re:If they can do it for him

[Anonymous Coward]

You can have it now:

http://www.cellcrypt.com/ [cellcrypt.com]