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Mission impossible: Securing Obama’s Blackberry

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United States (US) President Barack Obama is said to be the most powerful man on the planet. However, with power, comes great responsibility, and a highly secured phone.

The Times of India reports that the president uses a Blackberry in and outside the White House.

Obama’s phone security consists of a lot more than having a passcode; it also means that the phone is protected from amateur and professional hackers, along with spy agencies who want to know about his whereabouts.

An overview of Obama’s secure Blackberry: PHOTO: THE TIMES OF INDIA

According to reports, the US president has been a Blackberry user for at least a decade. Though he gave up his Blackberry for a short while after becoming president, the National Security Agency (NSA) gave him a customized Blackberry with a special security software called ‘SecureVoice’.

The new BlackBerry was stripped of every built-in feature that a hacker might exploit. It has no games, and likely no selfie-camera or texting function but carries top-notch encryption features.

The phone is limited to calling only 10 numbers who carry the same kind of encryption. These special numbers include US Vice President Joe Biden, Obama’s chief of staff, his top advisers and some of his family members, including the First Lady, of course.

According to sources, the ‘presidential Blackberry’ can only connect to a secure base station, which means that the White House Communications Agency has to carry such a secure base station wherever the president goes.

The secure base station is most likely connected to a secure satellite link with Washington.



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