If you’ve been tracking Obama’s Blackberry saga then you must be aware that he has been permitted to keep the device albeit with some compromises. However, this decision has made someone unhappy – the Redmond giant, Microsoft. Their point of concern is that all the data sent from his Blackberry could be spied on by the Canadians. Well, that’s a good sign of patriotism but is the intention really that patriotic? Check out the quote from WSJ and you’ll understand.
Microsoft, however, has questioned the wisdom of the president relying on a device whose maker is based in Canada. “You would be sending your data outside the country,” says Randy Siegel, a Microsoft enterprise mobile strategist who works on federal-government projects. “We wouldn’t want the casual musings or official communications of the most important person in the world being intercepted by others.”
Even if RIM routed information through a U.S. data center, the devices aren’t built to NSA’s security specs, he says. RIM declined to comment.
Mr. Siegel argues that a better alternative would be a National Security Agency-approved device, such as the Sectera Edge. Made by defense contractor General Dynamics and powered by Microsoft’s Windows CE software, the Edge is a smartphone that secures voice as well as data use. It was certified by the NSA in December 2007 but didn’t become available until this month, and the 12-ounce device costs about $3,350.
[Via CNET]
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