January 23, 2009
Obama's BlackBerry Love
By Jessica Kostek, TMCnet Channel Editor
It looks like Obama will be able to use RIM’s BlackBerry (News - Alert). Because of security issues, the President was told that when he entered the Presidency he would have to give up his BlackBerry; his response was that the Secret Service would have to pry it out of his hand.
Reports now confirm that President Obama will get to use a BlackBerry but it will be a one of a kind. The General Dynamics’ Sectera Edge, a “Secure Mobile Environment Portable Electronic Device,” or “SME PED.”
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Thursday, "The President has a BlackBerry through a compromise that allows him to stay in touch with senior staff and a small group of personal friends in a way that use will be limited.”
Company officials from General Dynamics describe the device as the first smartphone to provide secure wireless access to classified e-mail and Web sites on the government’s “Secret Internet Protocol Router Network,” or SIPRNET. End-users include the Department of Defense, government agencies, Homeland Security and “coalition partners requiring Type 1 or Non-Type 1 security for voice and data communications.”
Presidential emails are considered to be public records, Gibbs said, and thus subject to disclosure after the president leaves office.
Neither George W. Bush nor Bill Clinton used email during their presidencies.
Jessica Kostek is a channel editor for TMCnet, covering VoIP, CRM, call center and wireless technologies. To read more of Jessica’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Jessica Kostek
