Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

With the presidential inauguration a week away, there is much chatter on the Internet about Barack Obama being allowed to have a Blackberry when he is president. The issue is of course SECURITY.

Any competent intelligence service can eavesdrop on a cell phone.

Can we make a secure Blackberry or iPhone or any other SmartPhone? Of course we can. It is a simple matter or engineering. The cost might surprise taxpayers. There are a host of cleared companies in America who could do this job – minimum price $5 million. Spread the cost across 1,000 units – $5,000 each.

What you have to do: put some encryption chips in the SmartPhone, shield it so that the as-yet-to-be-encrypted data doesn’t radiate. There you have the technology.

But the technology is only a small issue in this.

(1) Where can the user be while talking about classified issues? The classic answer is in a secured location. And if you are in a secured location, why not just use the secure phone sitting on the desk? The user could talk quietly and ensure that no one in the room can hear him. Well, sort of.

(2) Where can the user go with a classified information storage item in his pocket? The classic answer is again a secured location, but that defeats the purpose of a mobile device.

Point (2) is the killer in all this. What if Obama loses his SmartPhone? What if someone steals it? What if someone defeats the protection technologies? The “what ifs” go on forever, and security experts love to throw the “what ifs” at people.

Once again, the whole thing comes down to physical security and trust of the person. Okay, we trust Obama, after all he is the President and by the way he is surrounded by Secret Service 24 hours a day. Theft and loss risks go away. What about the other 999 people receiving the secure SmartPhones? They don’t have the benefit of an entourage. Do we trust them?

So, we spend $5 million and hand out one Blackberry to Obama. The taxpayers will go for that one, right? Maybe Obama can use the royalties from one of his books to buy his own secure Blackberry. I haven’t heard that one suggested anywhere, but I think it is the best solution.