In the library world, we rely on technology. We e-mail our colleagues and co-workers. We use the web to find information for us and for others. As a profession, and like many other professions, we’ve grown increasingly attached to digital communications and we’d find ourselves hard pressed to make do without them.
Not so with the highest office in the United States. The President of the United States really doesn’t engage in e-mail because of laws regarding the archiving of Presidential communications, but also because of security. While the ability to send a message instantly to POTUS is a powerful thing, if that message contains classified information and it’s intercepted by a hacker, then we’re talking a matter of national security.
Nevertheless, our new President is a bit of a geek and is addicted to e-mail and his BlackBerry. He’s explicitly stated that “They’re going to pry it out of my hands.”
So how do you provide the security needed by the President when all he really wants is to use the same tools millions of people use every day? Simple. You get him the most secure BlackBerry ever made.
Next
Next president, not new president. He is not president yet.
sore loser
The pain will last a while. Watch some old Barry Goldwater speeches. That will help.
If I’m the NSAdviser, head of the Secret Service, etc. there isn’t a chance in hell I’m letting him keep that. It’s a legal and security nightmare.
Like they’ll let him drive himself? Nip out to the Gas ‘n’ Sip for corn nuts?
Nope
Not a sore loser, the guy I voted for won and will be sworn in on the 20th.
/oh were we talking about 2008?
I bet he will love the AT&T American Idol spam on his blackberry. I bet he is a heavy texter.
If I…
…were the Secretary of Defence, I would personally just take the phone away from him. It’s Obama’s problem if he didn’t think about the consequences in which his texting and calls could be traced easily. Even a high school student can hack a text message.
Being that it is his problem, the Secretary of Defence should be responsible enough to invest into the phone companies like Verizon and AT&T to get to work on Spyware-Protected Cell Phones.
And If A Frog Had Wings
If you were the Secretary of Defense, you’d spell the last word of your title with an ‘s’ instead of a ‘c’ because there is no ‘c’ in “defense.’ Then again, I guess you could be speaking of an office in charge of removing fences or something.
But more importantly, if you were the Secretary of Defense you’d be appointed by the President and would answer to him directly. Now, just as an exercise, I want you go to and personally rake something away from your real life boss. After all, it’s your boss’ problem if they don’t think about the consequences.
By the way, if you had read the article, you’d have noticed that there are certain devices cleared by the Secret Service for this kind of thing. They’ve just never been used by the POTUS because the last few of them have been technologically illiterate morons. Yes, I know Bush II had e-mail before he entered office. Let it be entered into the record that he had an AOL address, which is actually two steps below a Hotmail account.
I’m not saying President O is the second coming, but I am saying that he’s demonstratively smarter than the last three or four people we’ve had in office. Besides, the last President got himself a couple of wars that no one really wanted or needed, I figure that this one can have a PDA/cell phone. They don’t kill as many people or sack the economy so badly.
Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes. Tycho (Jerry Holkins) @
Penny Arcade
I can’t believe that it’s
I can’t believe that it’s not physically possible to have a phone/pda device that is totally secure. What do the CIA use? What does the Army use?
And what about other members of staff? Does this restriction also include the Chief of Staff etc etc? I’d think they need to have similar devices these days as well. You can’t rely on pagers and normal phones.
As for finding out where the president is, I think thats going to be fairly easy considering his itinerary is public information.