Solving Obama's BlackBerry Dilemma 374
CurtMonash writes "Much is being made of the deliberations as to whether President Obama will be able to keep using his beloved "BarackBerry." As the NYTimes details, there are two major sets of objections: infosecurity and legal/records retention. Deven Coldeway of CrunchGear does a good job of showing that the technological infosecurity problems can be solved. And as I've noted elsewhere, the 'Omigod, he left his Blackberry behind at dinner' issue is absurd. Presidents are surrounded by attendants, Secret Service and otherwise. Somebody just has to be given the job of keeping track of the president's personal communication device. As for the legal question of whether the president can afford to put things in writing that will likely be exposed by courts and archivists later — the answer to that surely depends on the subject matter or recipient. Email to his Chicago friends — why not? Anything he'd write to them would be necessarily non-secret anyway. Email to the Secretary of Defense? That might be a different matter."
Who Cares? (Score:1, Funny)
Talk about a waste of bandwidth.
Re:research in motion (Score:5, Funny)
The one major issue with thi... RIM is a foreign company.
That can be solved. Once Obama pulls all the troops back from Iraq, they can invade Canada. :-)
Re:research in motion (Score:5, Funny)
Once Obama pulls all the troops back from Iraq, they can invade Canada. :-)
Pffft, easier said than done. If you think an Iraqi insurgent with an IED is a tough adversary just wait until you see a Canadian with a hockey stick..... besides, I don't think the Baldwin family can afford a war with Canada ;)
Re:research in motion (Score:4, Funny)
I suspect there's some reason that I noticed "DOD Root Certificates" installed on mine. :) There must be some arrangement with the gov't for security, at least of some sort. I doubt that the President should be (or would be) sending much over it though. It's not necessarily the idea that it's a smart phone, and he could lose it (as I noticed someone else said), but that the data is transiting insecure networks.
And hey, one mistyped address, and some state secret may end up going across insecure networks, to an insecure individual. He is President after all, even an innocent note like "Honey, I'll be home at 8:30, then we can watch that movie" is a huge security concern. The White House is a big place, at least big enough where a targeted attack wouldn't necessarily do much of anything. Knowing he'll be sitting on the couch in whatever room the President would watch movies, at a specific time, is a dangerous thing.
The again, so far just about everyone loves Obama. :) I'm thinking sometime within the first year, he'd be safe to sit in the front yard of the White House on a lawn chair, smoking a cigar and talking sh1t with foreign diplomats.
Hmmm, what's this text I just received?
From: 2024561414@blackberry.net
To: jwsmythe
Subject: evac
Evac ASAP. Bird inbound. ETA 10min
Re:Obamatard portmanteaus (Score:3, Funny)
"Can we stop all this portmanteau crap? Please? It's like the imaginary label "President-Elect"... "
OK, you win. No more Obamanteaus.
Re:research in motion (Score:5, Funny)
Pffft, easier said than done. If you think an Iraqi insurgent with an IED is a tough adversary just wait until you see a Canadian with a hockey stick...
That, and we maintain a threatening lead in Zamboni technology [imdb.com]!
Re:research in motion (Score:1, Funny)
The British set fire to the White House, yes. They did in retaliation for the torching of Parliament in Montreal by Americans, a fact that doesn't make it into U.S. history textbooks 200 years later.
(Incidentally, the White House was deserted quickly immediately prior to the visit by the British Soldiers, and they discovered a state dinner waiting for them. So they ate first and then torched the White House.
Re:research in motion (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Who Cares? (Score:4, Funny)
To be fair, he's the first President in eight years that has opposable thumbs.
Re:Who Cares? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:research in motion (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, those baseball players make terrifying adversaries--except that they have to stop to catch their breath after chasing you 90 feet. :p
I guess us Canucks have to watch ourselves though; I'm sure Sarah Palin is keeping an eye on us from her house.
Re:This is ridiculous. (Score:5, Funny)
Canada, eh? That's one of those unstable [www.ctv.ca], oil-rich [doe.gov] nations run by a fundamentalist [macleans.ca] dictator, that supports all kinds of terror [www.cbc.ca], right?
Re:research in motion (Score:4, Funny)
I guess us Canucks have to watch ourselves though; I'm sure Sarah Palin is keeping an eye on us from her house.
Nah, she's too busy protecting both of our countries from Putin. There's 12 other US States that share a border with Canada. I suspect that their Governors are the ones busy keeping an eye on you Canucks so don't get any ideas ;)
Re:Who Cares? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:research in motion (Score:5, Funny)
Re:research in motion (Score:1, Funny)
Re:research in motion (Score:4, Funny)
Depends on your point of view. From where I sit, it is a domestic company and a foreign president.
Re:Fangirls of the World Unite! (Score:3, Funny)
People who don't like fangirl stories (what happened to fanboys?) have no place on Slashdot!
Oh sorry. I'll disappear into a black hole of male-dominated language now.
Re:research in motion (Score:4, Funny)
Re:the answer is obvious. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:research in motion (Score:5, Funny)
Really? I thought the name "Canada" came from the two folks who first discovered it.
"Great country, eh?," said the first one. "What should we name it, eh?"
"I know," said the second one. "We'll put some letters in a hat, eh, and then we'll take turns drawing the letters out, eh, and that's how we'll name the place!"
"Good idea, eh!" said the first one. He pulled off his toupe, scribbled some letters on some paper scraps, dumped them into the toupe, shook it up, and they began to draw.
"Oh, I got a 'c', eh!"
"I got an 'n', eh!"
Re:Let's see here... (Score:3, Funny)
Funny, your IP resolves to something at eop.gov.
Re:research in motion (Score:2, Funny)
> Parliament is very similar to congress in that way ... original usage
> was a meeting or session - nowadays, it also refers to a place or a body.
Not quite. Parliament comes from two French words -- "Parler", to speak, and "Mentir" ... to lie.
Re:Who Cares? (Score:5, Funny)
Monica Lewinsky with the blackberry in vibrate mode in the oval office.
Dammit, I was so sure it was Colonel Mustard.