Barack Obama has been a keen user of the blackberry. Unfortunately it appeared that he would not be allowed to continue to use it. However, it seems like he might get to keep it after all. Speculation suggests that he will be getting a Sectera Edge… more on that after the jump.
The Sectera Edge is built by General Dynamics who are a defence contractor. Simply put, it’s a super secure version of a Blackberry. The smartphone was developed for the NSA and was designed to be a “secure mobile environment portable electronic device.” Some features of the Sectera Edge is it’s ability to use SCIP (Secure Communications Interoperability Protocol) along site HAIPE IS “High Assurance Internet Protocol Encryptor Interoperability Specification”. This will allow secure connections to government networks. Also the Sectera Edge can allow the exchange of secure email with government personnel.
As well as being super secure the phone can also switch to a normal unsecure mode by the touch of a button.
So, given all of that, could the Sectera Edge be secure enough for a U.S. president? It’s hard to say. One issue raised by my colleague Matt Hamblen at Computerworld is how the encryption would affect messages sent to non-government employees. (They would have to be given appropriate decryption technology to be able to read them.) A security expert also questions whether enemies could use the device to ascertain the president’s location, or even tap into his phone’s microphone and transmit his conversations.
The phone is rather cool and OTT for most of us regular users. Unfortunately we might never fully know what Blackberry Obama gets to keep as everything is just speculation here until it is announced (which I doubt it will be).
If you want to feel more secure for yourself and have $3350 spare then go and pick one up.
Via: GearCrave and PCW
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