The NY Times is suggesting Obama won't be able to use his blackberry once he becomes president due to the nature of the Presidential Records Act and security concerns. However, with a few modifications to his blackberry and a simple adjustment to the IT infrastructure, I believe he could theoretically continue to use his blackberry in a limited capacity while he is president. It would require implementing a proper cryptographic infrastructure between the president and the limited number people who have permission to email him on that account. As well, he may need to ensure that he cannot respond directly with the blackberry as a preventative measure. However, this second part may be unnecessary if the president is mature enough to not abuse the privileges granted him by the email account. (IE. He realizes that anything he sends on the BB can be subpeonaed.)
First concern that is obvious is the security concern:
Diana Owen, who leads the American Studies program at Georgetown University, said presidents were not advised to use e-mail because of security risks and fear that messages could be intercepted.
"They could come up with some bulletproof way of protecting his e-mail and digital correspondence, but anything can be hacked," said Ms. Owen, who has studied how presidents communicate in the Internet era. "The nature of the president’s job is that others can use e-mail for him."
I know that this is a bit of an ad hominem attack, but why the hell is the NYT asking a "American Studies" professor about internet cryptography? They should be contacting Bruce Schneier or such about whether or not this is possible. This is as useful as asking a carpenter about the finer points of the Maillard Reaction.
However, it is entirely possible to set up a secure Blackberry infrastructure and it is insulting to the men and women who work for the president to say otherwise. If needed, the United States government could easily modify a Blackberry and set up an IT infrastructure which would be as secure as any other channel the president uses. In fact, I would argue that by hiring some of the best minds in cryptography and IT infrastructure they could set up far more secure systems with the blackberry since technically only the president will be able to see anything which is received on it.
True, "anything can be hacked." However, by that logic we should put the president into a lead-lined faraday cage, and only allow one advisor to talk with him at any time and that conversation needs to be recorded on a stone tablet using one-time pad encryption. Why? Because otherwise an adversary might have a remote chance of causing problems. Just because things can be hacked, doesn't imply that they cannot be secured. The NSA is one of the most secure places on the planet and I promise you that they use computers and networks in their offices. It is the same for the pentagon, same for pretty much every other major department which needs to be secure in the US. It is sheer absurdity to say that a small task like securing a BB is not possible.
Now, another complaint they bring up is the Presidential Records Act.
But before he arrives at the White House, he will probably be forced to sign off. In addition to concerns about e-mail security, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas.
As a note, if the concern is that it would be difficult to keep records of all of his emails. Someone from Blackberry needs to call the advisors and let them know that the BES server does have the ability to back data up as needed. So the concern that somehow the records of his messages can't be kept, like Cheney's e-mails were "lost", is an absurd concern.
Now, the other concern is the fact that anything the president sends or receives via email would be subject to public scrutiny. I don't know about you, but I think Obama is mature enough that if the system was set up for him, he would be aware at all times that anything he sent from his Blackberry was a matter of public record. However, if he doesn't believe that he can keep his typing thumbs away from doing something potentially embarassing, then set the Blackberry to not allow him to send any emails. That way he can receive the emails right away and filter his responses through his aides without any worries.
The final concern that I am able to see is that the Blackberry will suck up too much of his time.
She added: "It’s a time burner. It might be easier for him to say, ‘I can’t be on e-mail.’ "
I acknowledge that when I had a Blackberry, it was a massive time suck. However, it wasn't a time suck in the constantly refreshing, not really useful for productivity way that other email systems can be. It was a time suck, because suddenly I was able to get more work done. Why? When people needed to reach me, it would be automatically queued in my Blackberry. I could work my way through them systematically, and not be interrupted by phone calls or people walking into my office. People also could reach me at any time, and at any location easily.
It was a time suck, because it actually filled more of my work day with things I needed to do.
So, I think this is a non-problem. Limit the number of people with access to the presidential Blackberry email address and it will actually allow the president to be even more effective in his job. He will get updates on every important action that he needs to know about regularly and will be more knowledgeable and capable to respond faster to any presidential matter.
Obama can keep his Blackberry if he wants to. He just needs his White House IT and support staff to start thinking in the 21st century when it comes to computers.
Crossposted at 1337hax0r.com