Why can't President Barack Obama
use an iPhone?
"I'm not allowed, for security
reasons, to have an iPhone," Obama
told a White House audience
yesterday (Dec. 4), according to
Agence France-Presse. Instead, the
news agency said, Obama has to
stick to his BlackBerry, a valued
brand in Washington due to its
strict security controls and strong
encryption.
That's not the entire story,
however. BlackBerrys also offer a
high level of organizational control
and security that few other
smartphones can match.
MORE: 7 Best Smartphones on the
Market Now
Command and control
Obama's model almost certainly
sends and receives all its email and
instant messages through a
BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES),
an in-house email forwarder
controlled by the user's
organization. Each BlackBerry-
issuing organization can set its own
security rules and procedures, and
you can assume that the White
House's would be pretty tough.
Consumer BlackBerrys, in contrast,
send and receive messages
through the BlackBerry company's
own servers, which are fairly
secure, but out of the White House
and National Security Agency's
controls - and, because BlackBerry
is a Canadian company, often
outside of the United States as well.
Most iPhones and Android phones
route email and instant messages
through each message service's
own servers - Apple for iCloud and
Messages, Google for Gmail and
Google Talk, Yahoo for Yahoo Mail
and Yahoo Messenger - rather than
through any single central control
point.
Numerous reports from 2009
indicated that some months after
taking office as president, Obama
received a customized BlackBerry
8830 World Edition smartphone
from BlackBerry maker Research In
Motion. (The Waterloo, Ontario,
company has since changed its
name to BlackBerry.)
The handset reportedly
incorporated voice-encryption
software developed by the
National Security Agency. Since
Obama's phone is apparently one of
a kind, there's a good chance that
even more secure hardware-based
encryption is also onboard.
Between his inauguration and the
delivery of his custom BlackBerry,
multiple reports indicated Obama
may have used the military-grade
Sectera Edge smartphone made by
General Dynamics, though we
couldn't find any photos of him
using one.
Photo evidence
There are, however, dozens of
photos from Obama's first term
showing him checking email on
what appears to be a BlackBerry
8830, and one from a trip abroad
that shows him speaking into a
BlackBerry Curve 8900. An
Associated Press photo from
Obama's second inauguration in
January 2013 shows him checking
messages on what looks like a
flatter-bodied, later-model
BlackBerry Q10.
Obama reportedly uses an email
address known only to a dozen or
so close aides and family members.
Other reports state that each
incoming email message is
manually screened for malware and
malicious links.
What few photos show is Obama
actually speaking on a BlackBerry.
Instead, when the president has
been photographed speaking on a
cellphone outside the White House
or his presidential limousine, he's
almost always using a flip or slider
feature phone, possibly belonging
to an aide or campaign worker.
It may be that the president isn't
allowed to speak on his BlackBerry
outside of controlled
environments. BlackBerry voice
calls are normally handled by
regular cellular carriers, not a BES,
but the White House and
presidential limousine may have
their own cellular networks.
As for feature phones, those
relatively primitive models are
more difficult to infect with
malware or spyware than more
sophisticated smartphones.
While the president may be
forbidden from handling an iPhone,
he does have an iPad, reportedly
given to him personally by then-
Apple chief Steve Jobs. It's a safe
bet that iPad connects only to the
White House Wi-Fi network.