[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Can Obama Keep His BlackBerry? here

[Adama]

No. Even Mr. Bush could not keep his cell phone when he became President.

[number6]

My opinion on if he should keep his BlackBerry or not is: who cares.

[GraysonPeddie]

Spot on with the article.

Obama cares about the article.

I supported him when I visited his website when he's a candidate for Present, including Change.gov.

Telling Obama to give up Blackberry is like we're living in a Republican-sided USA.

[HarveyDanger]

Grayson:
I supported Obama, too, but... what? How does your last statement make sense?

[dnalop]

Already? What a drama for Obama!
I didn't support him but since he was elected, it would be wise to keep him safe now. If there is a potential for trouble, take the toy away. For example, if his Blackberry or any other gadget has a GPS feature activated and can be hacked, there is a chance that he could become a walking/driving live target with precise coordinates...no?

[kitsune17717]

that's a good point dnalop, but I think the big cheeses working for obama already have that taken care of; They would have probably ordered a blackberry with the GPS module deactivated.

[Adama]

I don't think there's a BlackBerry that could be made to be safe enough for Obama to use. Can you imagine, with all the hackers there are in the world, someone being able go hack into his personal agenda, email, calendar, etc., etc.???

Truly, I think that he's better off not having it. Why run the risk... he's already in enough danger and he's only the President Elect. IMO

[kitsune17717]

The thing about blackberries (or other smartphones) is that you can make applications for it. What if, for example, a custom-made office application for Obama was made so that all of the data that he handled was encrypted, or not even exist on his blackberry but instead on a server somewhere secure? You could also make the application disable itself so if Obama loses the blackberry, he can disable it some way.
Pop culture makes us want to believe that "hackers" can hack anything, like in Die Hard 4 (which is, of course, very false). But in reality, the only way hackers would be able to gain access to Obama's blackberryis to physically steal it from him or gain access of the remote servers that support it. I think both of these options will be very impossible.

[SamCal]

It's not about Obama - it's about the Blackberry. The device and its medium is not secure enough for the kinds of communications a head of state will transact. Common commercial cell phones are easily hacked, hijacked, intercepted, stolen, cloned, and even remotely actuated by those 'in the know'. Unbelievable the author -billing himself as a "CSO" - doesn't seem to know these things. You cannot assume people - even high-ranking officials - will always follow the rules or protect the information and communications they access. Obama is human - he will err either intentionally or through an honest mistake. Sometimes 'convenience' makes people do things the wrong way.

Case in point: Who was the moron who routinely took home classified information home and then said he didn't realize he wasn't supposed to do that??? Oh, yeah - that was Attorney General Alberto Gonzales! Mr. Gonzales had mishandled 18 documents that were considered S.C.I. classification, or sensitive compartmentalized information, a security category for documents considered more tightly controlled than top secret. The Attorney General is responsible for prosecuting people who do things like that. If the deed had been committed by, say, a military officer or a news columnist, there would have been hell to pay.
/eof/

[technicalhitman]

I believe that its very important that the President of the United States has direct access to email and the web. To take away his own personalized access to the web is absolutely moronic. If anybody needs up to the second access to news and breaking events, its the Commander in Chief and the leader of the free world.

I believe the best bet is for the Obama Transition team to work with Research in Motion on a top secret presidential model. With state of the art encryption for all tranmissions, no GPS on the phone, and rig it to constantly update its security. Then just train Obama in special procedures when using the device.

Potential doesn't mean 100% threat. Its a possiblity but not an absolute. There are ways to get around the pitfalls. I think it would help keep the President in the loop.

[rgreen4]

First of all, before the information about what is going on in the world hits the web, it on the Presidential briefing papers. Second, while he is in the White House, he acess to more secure information technology and has it also available while aboard Air Force One. It is doubtful he has it in the car or on Marine One, but those are short periods of time.

Lest we forget, when President Bush was sitting in front of an elementary school classroom on Sept. 11, 2001, and his aides kept him abreast by walking up to him and briefing him on events. There is very little that happens in the world that the intelligence community is not aware of before the web operators and news reporters. To think that POTUS needs a Blackberry to keep in touch is ludicrous.

To also think that he has to depend on advice from outside the government is also ridiculous. While the outside individuals have a right to their opinions, they are in almost all situations operating on partial information at best. When making a decision in government, all ramifications and contingencies have to be taken into account. Agreements with foreign governments have to be taken into account when making a decision, and not all the "side" agreements are public. Many foreign governments say one thing publicly and agree to something else in private. If this info were to be made public, the other government may suffer general unrest in the country. (Especially in the Mid East).

Another reason for not having a wireless device is that when the device is on and in contact with a tower, the vicinity of the device can be detected. While this is not available to the average citizen, the information can be had by professionals, and could jeopardize security. This is one reason that all the secure devices communicate directly with a secure satellite, not cell towers.

And yes, the author of the article should have thought of all these.

[dnalop]

SamCal said:

Case in point: Who was the moron who routinely took home classified information home and then said he didn't realize he wasn't supposed to do that??? Oh, yeah - that was Attorney General Alberto Gonzales! Mr. Gonzales had mishandled 18 documents that were considered S.C.I. classification, or sensitive compartmentalized information, a security category for documents considered more tightly controlled than top secret. The Attorney General is responsible for prosecuting people who do things like that. If the deed had been committed by, say, a military officer or a news columnist, there would have been hell to pay.
/eof/

For the balance, as wrong as it was, at least he didn't destroy anything (did he?) "inadvertently" unlike the "moron" Sandy Berger during his mission impossible escapades, remeber that?