President Barack Obama is still a BlackBerry fan.
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- Getty Images
President Barack Obama is still a BlackBerry fan.
The president’s attachment to the device was on full display Friday. Mr. Obama left the White House and crossed the lawn to get on Marine One, the first step in his trip to Las Vegas for an immigration speech later in the day. But he quickly got off the helicopter and headed back into the White House. He told reporters: “I forgot something.”
After re-emerging from the White House, he said: “Didn’t you guys ever forget something?” Asked what he forgot, he held up his phone. “My BlackBerry,” he said as he got back on Marine One.
BlackBerry Ltd., based in Waterloo, Ontario, has been in a long corporate slump, and Mr. Obama’s continued use of its devices has been a continued point of pride for the company.
Mr. Obama has cited security concerns as one reason he has stuck with the brand. “I am not allowed, for security reasons, to have an iPhone,” Mr. Obama told a group of young people back in 2013, while noting that his daughters did use the Apple Inc. devices.
- LOST: President Barack Obama runs from Marine One back into the White House after forgetting his Blackberry.
- Getty Images
- FOUND: President Obama holds up his BlackBerry.
- Associated Press
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2844398/Obama-keeps-Marine-One-waiting-heads-White-House-saying-s-forgotten-Blackberry.html#ixzz3JkSqkJkZ
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German ministry to buy 20,000 BlackBerrys to foil the NSA
BlackBerry is about to get some business and it has the NSA to thank for that, well sort of. Germany is quite unhappy with recent NSA revelations and decided not to renew its Verizon contract. Now the German Federal Ministry of the Interior is looking into buying 20,000 BlackBerrys for security reasons.
The Ministry already has 3,000 BlackBerry OS 10 phones enhanced by a German security firm Secusmart. Apparently, BlackBerrys are the only smartphones that comply with standards needed by the anti-eavesdropping technology by Secusmart. That's no wonder as BlackBerry has just announced plans to acquire Secusmart.
Part of that package is a Secusmart microSD card that keeps confidential info safe and runs at €2,000 a pop. And that's for a measly 4GB of storage (wink!).
Keep in mind that this isn't a regular card though, it also has a dedicated crypto-controller and a PKI authentication co-processor. Aside from keeping your data safe, the microSD card also implements 128-bit AES encryption to secure voice calls and SMS.
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UK prime minister confesses reliance on BlackBerry smartphone for remotely running the government while on holiday
David Cameron has confessed his reliance on his BlackBerry smartphone, despite the possibility that the company will cease making phones.
The prime minister said that he could run government remotely from his smartphone, despite being on holiday.
“Wherever I am in the world I am always within a few feet of a BlackBerry and an ability to manage things should they need to be managed,” he said on Monday. “And indeed as I have done on I think almost every holiday that I have enjoyed over the last few years.”
Cameron is a long-time BlackBerry user because of the perceived security of the smartphone, which passes all data and through secure servers and has on-device encryption.
However, BlackBerry’s chief executive, John Chen, warned in April that the company may exit the handset business to concentrate on its enterprise server business, if he is not able to turn around the phone business’s profits.
iPads banned
Cameron tested a real-time economic data app on iPads in 2012, which gave him instant access to GDP, bank lending, jobs and property prices plus polling data and Twitter feeds. The app, hosted by the Government Digital Services inside the Cabinet Office was described as the “No 10 Dashboard.”
Apple’s iPad was later banned from Cabinet meetings over fears that foreign intelligence agencies could bug the tablet, smartphones and other connected devices.
Secure communications
BlackBerry bought the German security firm Secusmart in July to bolster its security credentials and head the company in the direction of highly secure mobile communications.
“The acquisition of Secusmart underscores our focus on addressing growing security costs and threats ranging from individual privacy to national security,” Chen said at the time.
BlackBerry had partnered with Secusmart before, providing encrypted data and voice calls to the German Federal Office for Information Security, with Chancellor Angela Merkel said to be a user of a modified BlackBerry Z10.
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2014年11月22日土曜日 8時29分40秒 UTC+9 Skywalker: