Obama's BlackBerry. AP file photo.
by Mark Silva and updated at 2:35 pm EST
Obama will get his Berry.
The hot news among the breaking Internet stories of the e-cycle is that President Barack Obama, who worries about getting trapped inside "the bubble'' of the presidency, will be able to keep in touch with the outside world with a hand-held e-mail device.
"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 and the security is enhanced to ensure his ability to communicate, but to do so effectively,'' Robert Gibbs, the president's press secretary, said today, suggesting that Obama's Berry circle will be restricted to "a limited group of senior staffers and personal friends. It's a pretty small group of people.
"He believes that it's a way of keeping in touch with folks, a way of doing it outside of getting stuck in a bubble...
The Atlantic, which first reported this breaking Berry-news online, reports that whatever Obama uses - be it a customized BlackBerry or Berry look-alike -- it will be "heavily encrypted" to deter information from winding up in the hands of hackers or others who would want to see harm come to him or to the United States.
Conscious of the fact that the beauty of a Berry's location lies in the hands of the beholder, the president's probably will lack that GPS function which enables outsiders to pinpoint the location of the holder. to help locate its important user's whereabouts.
This stuff makes the Secret Service nervous.
"I worked for the Secret Service back in the 1980s, and we did not allow the protectees to wear pagers because the agents were afraid the pagers could act as location beacons," MSNBC quotes John Pescatore, an Internet security specialist for Gartner Research, as saying. "Cell phones have the same issue, and something with GPS inside is even a bigger issue. If the device is actually sending out GPS coordinates that would be a definite no-no."
The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder says the service has signed off on a super- encrypted model for Obama, who considers it essential to help him "stay in touch with the flow of everyday life," as he said recently on n NBC's Today show
Comments
I hope he's paying for the device and not the taxpayer, I think he's just being a baby, there are people (I'm sure) that may want to hurt him, those that are charged to protect him are just doing there jobs. If he did not want to grow up then maybe he should have stayed home.
Posted by: Dave | January 22, 2009 12:00 PM
I'm glad he can keep it!
He needs to stay in touch with the real world. That was a premise he ran on.Can you imagine how isolated a president can feel?
Also, speaking from a BlackBerry owner's(9530) perspective.......this thing becomes a VERY big part of your life.I have owned a blackberry since 2004 and I can' t imagine life without it. LOL.Sad....I know.
Posted by: Brian Chicago | January 22, 2009 12:34 PM
???? Our President is a "baby" because he wants his Blackberry??? Are you 70 years old or something?? Do you realize that electronic communication is the NORM in our world today? If previous Presidents' pen and paper were paid for by the taxpayer, then his Blackberry should be as well. Jeeze...finally we have a guy in there from the CURRENT generation and the old f@rts are calling him names...
Posted by: thetruth | January 22, 2009 12:34 PM
The world needs to change and adjust as necessary. There will always be new things, and we need to figure out how to integrate them. Surely there are other world leaders and executives who need the same. What Obama wants is technically possible, so what's the problem?
Posted by: Jenny | January 22, 2009 12:38 PM
I like the idea of the President "Staying in Touch" by keeping his Blackberry. Anyone who doesn't like needs to get a life
Posted by: Ralph M. Hicks Jr. | January 22, 2009 12:50 PM
There's no excuse for the POTUS to not be connected in this day and age. Even if he uses it to swap dirty jokes with his buddies is that really any worse than the shenanigans other presidents have pulled in the past while in office?
Posted by: Jon | January 22, 2009 12:53 PM
Yes, you have to be pretty well isolated or from an older generation to make comments like "obama is a baby" for wanting his blackberry in the 21st century were business is done electronically. There is no reason to be so bitter about having to pay for a tool that is part of 21 century communication especially for our commander in chief. Very interesting indeed with such a huge gap in generations and the intolerance it breeds.
Posted by: chicago truth squad | January 22, 2009 12:54 PM
We NEED our president to be connected and awake...
Baby? No... just a man of the 21st century, unlike Bush :-)
Posted by: John | January 22, 2009 12:55 PM
I don't believe this "bubble story" I'm pretty sure he's keeping it so he can stay up to date on the White Sox and Fantasy Football scores.
Posted by: Shawn | January 22, 2009 1:04 PM
Hey Dave, you must be just too old to know that most of us have ways to connect to the outside world...maybe that is what happen to Bush....not connected to anything..oh ya...guns of mass destruction...now he was connected wasn't he!!! I'll pay for Obama to be connected!!
Posted by: Diane | January 22, 2009 1:04 PM
Baby? It is communication with the outside world not an X-box.
Posted by: bill r. | January 22, 2009 1:25 PM
I thought archiving the communications was an issue as well. All white house info/email etc is backed up for years even after the user has deleted it. Im wondering if this is possible on a BB, or is this supposed to be strictly personal? One of the things Palin got nailed for was using her Yahoo addy for state business.
And the moment his number or email addy get out... rut ro 'rastro!
Posted by: Chaos | January 22, 2009 1:43 PM
If we had elected McCain, he would have wanted to carry his own telegraph machine around to send out communications. I think having instant communication will make Obama more productive, and he'll always be in touch.
Posted by: Al S | January 22, 2009 1:47 PM
I would definitely foot the bill for Obama to carry a Smart Phone of some sort. I'd even go for the very best of the best, full encryption, etc. That anyone would want the leader of the free world to have anything less boggles the mind. Welcome to the 21st century fellow Americans.
We're about to foot the bill for another 700 billion in economic stimulus and someone thinks he should pay for it himself, really? Maybe he should be dressed in rags and keep his family in a box too, eh?
I wonder how upset Dave was about AIG taking all of their "Good Old Boys" out for an expensive retreat using our money? If paying for a Blackberry smart phone is a big enough deal to comment on, then I want to see his posts on real issues, like all of the free meals Wall Street has been getting, or private "no-bid" contracts going to the previous administrations "friends"....
Who needs to grow up?
Posted by: Boysenberry Payne | January 22, 2009 1:49 PM
Not sure I buy the GPS thing as a real threat nor his bb usage. His staff uses it air force one has its own broadband service, secret service need to use something to locate potus and use modern technology for communication. Im sure this is all within the same network of protection.
Posted by: jv | January 22, 2009 2:26 PM
Well goody; Obama can now talk with his buddies Wright, Rezko and Ayers again. Oops, I wonder if they'll have encrypted phones too?
Posted by: RM | January 22, 2009 3:10 PM
Great, one day in office and he is already pushing the button!
Posted by: Howman | January 22, 2009 3:42 PM
First, I am laughing at all the haters that are actualizing criticizing the man for wanting to keep a techonology that any CEO in the world uses as a lifeline for conducting business. Seriously, people need to get a life. I guess if that's the best you can find wrong with him though, he's already doing great!
I am glad to hear that Obama did not back down on this because of security reasons. If we want to be competitive in the technology marketplace we better figure a way to make sure that the President of our country can have a secure wireless connection. Obama talks about this in "Audacity of Hope", how behind our country is in technology innovation and knowledge because we don't invest in it as a country. Well guess what people, that is the world we are living in today and if we don't get in the game as a big player then you can rest assured our economy will continue to tank. Because Chinca and Japan and other countries are already leaps and bounds ahead of us in this field and IMO, as one of the supposed most powerful countries in the world, we sure better be making ourselves competitve or we will be out of the game completely.
Posted by: DEO | January 22, 2009 4:08 PM
I am glad he's able to keep in touch with his friends more easily. I've seen the changes his family has gone through and I know it is an adjustment that is made easier when he can have some of his normal life.
Posted by: AET | January 22, 2009 4:37 PM
I am glad the problem was solved with technology not more regulations. This is a change I like to see.
Posted by: Bill | January 22, 2009 4:38 PM
I am glad the problem was solved with technology not more regulations. This is a change I like to see.
Posted by: Bill | January 22, 2009 4:43 PM
From Xbox to Atari?
http://democralypsenow.blogspot.com/2009/01/white-house-version-20.html
Posted by: wickedlittledoll | January 22, 2009 7:55 PM
As a student in comp. science i wonder how is it possible to have a secure conversation if only one side has the encryption. The recipient of the call should as well have the "new" blackberry. But this i think applies to all kind of call unless the network itself is Encryption Compliant, phone itself cannot do nothing.
On the lighter side,
Blackberry's new edition will be B-CUBE. Black Berry Barack :)
Posted by: Anil | January 22, 2009 8:06 PM
FDR had a lot of "back channels" of communication with his "spies" throughout his administration & beyond, or so we have been told.
From the best to the worst: W was famously isolated and dependent on a very few advisor-filters. At one point he actually admitted in an interview that he did not read newspapers.
But he was good at keeping everything secret, top secret, hush hush.
I think Obama will succeed at not being walled off by a few advisors who have their own agendas to push.
Long live the BB!
Posted by: ornery | January 23, 2009 12:57 AM
Iam a research student in cryptography.
If I were the President of USA, I would not use any mobile device for my official/unofficial communication, as every encryption scheme, be it elliptic curves or RSA or AES or whatever is not immune to information leakage.
Using the Blacberry or any other electronic device is fine for media publicity. But not so fine to call up his daughters at school or to speak to American troops say in Afganisthan. Also, an NSA agent will have to keep watch over the communication channels 24*7, because in case of main key leakage, everything will have to shut down and reinitialized. Iam not trying to be paranoid. This is the reality of technology.
Obama will have to wait for Quantum crypto to materialize.
Posted by: Srinivasa Rao | January 23, 2009 7:34 PM
"finally we have a guy in there from the CURRENT generation and the old f@rts are calling him names...", The reason why presidents do not want cell phones or use email is because they keep records, and someday those records will be availiable by subpoena.
Posted by: John | May 11, 2009 7:23 PM