President Barack Obama has said in the past that he’s not allowed to use an iPhone for security reasons (though he does use a WiFi-only iPad) – but the NY Times reports that senior White House aides finally can. The change of policy comes as part of a major update to elderly White House technology.
One would hope that the modifications to that Blackberry include the messaging system, since the company’s CEO last year implied that the security of its messaging system is less than perfect.
Until very recently, West Wing aides were stuck in a sad and stunning state of technological inferiority: desktop computers from the last decade, black-and-white printers that could not do double-sided copies, aging BlackBerries (no iPhones), weak wireless Internet and desktop phones so old that few staff members knew how to program the speed-dial buttons […]
Many White House aides now carry the most recent iPhones. Mr. Obama, however, still carries a specially modified, highly secure BlackBerry.
While Obama is a seeming fan of Apple products, he unsurprisingly came down on the FBI’s side when it came to the company’s refusal to build a ‘GovtOS’ for the San Bernardino iPhone.
Photo: White House Photo/Pete Souza
