IDF Task Force

You have probably heard by now that Barack Obama kept his BlackBerry after taking office of the president of the United States.  As you might expect, there are many security questions that must be answered. Main question is “is Barack Obama transmitting any sensitive information over his BlackBerry that would compromise national security?” and if so “how well is it protected?”

White House Deputy Chief Of Staff Joseph Hagin said, while answering a question on what type of information can be transmitted over president’s phone: “There are very few laws and regulations, actually. With a couple notable exceptions, he has complete discretion as to how he’s going to communicate.  One area where there’s really not much discretion is the laws related to the security of classified information. And by classified information I mean technically classified information — documents or subject matters that are classified under the government system as either confidential, secret, top secret, or what they call sensitive compartmentalized information, SCI. That information may not be discussed on an open line, be it wireless or phone. That information can only be discussed or transmitted over devices that are approved for the transmission of classified information.”

Secret service is facing a real challenge here. They are not only responsible for physical safety of the president, but they are also responsible for electronic intrusions. Another issue is the Presidential Records Act. Law states that any official communication by the president or his staff must be retained for inclusion in the archives. That information is retained for 12 years after the last day of the administration.  Hagin went on to expand further: “Then the White House lawyers and the Justice Department have a concern because of the Records Act and making sure all of that is captured. But they also have a concern which is really more of a political concern… The ease with which people can hack into these devices and intercept information and plant spyware on them and all those sorts of things. If someone did get hold of his messages, even though they’re not classified… Imagine if a friend of his or a relative of his sent him something that was controversial, and that somehow got into the public domain. You can imagine, given the game of “gotcha” that’s played in Washington, the questions that would come: Did the president repudiate his friend? Did the president cut off contact with his friend? Does the president agree with his friend? All of a sudden, you have the president having to defend information that he had no control over receiving. It just appeared on his BlackBerry one day, it was leaked somehow or intercepted somehow, and suddenly became a permanent presidential record. One of the things that I’m hoping happens is that business and industry looks at this… and realizes how vulnerable they are. Because if you have sensitive proprietary information — Look at the banking industry. The decisions that they’re making are billion-dollar decisions. I’d bet that there are people out there trying as hard as they can to mine that information… Unlike in the late 90s when people wanted to announce that they’d hacked into half a million computers, today people want to do it covertly. They want to leave no fingerprints and no footprints because they want to be able to access this information on a continuing basis in order to benefit financially. That’s really the crux of the matter.”

Working in the mobile security industry, I get uneasy feeling when I start to think of who might get their hands on the information transmitted by president’s BlackBerry. Unintentionally Barack might open a whole new security whole in this nation’s infrastructure and I would easily bet a million dollars on the fact that there are nations and organizations out there today that are trying to intercept president’s communication through his cell phone.