Obama's secure PDA

[Ivan Krstić]

As I'm sure many of you've heard by now, after some initial hesitation  
due to legal requirements regarding the preservation of presidential  
records, Mr. Obama has been allowed to continue using a wireless e- 
mail device after assuming the presidency. There are still conflicting  
reports about whether the hardware is an altered RIM BlackBerry or a  
different device, though the most likely contender for the latter  
option appears to be the General Dynamics Sectéra Edge, which features  
a "trusted [secondary] display" and two buttons used to switch between  
classified and unclassified operation. Some details from Declan  
McCullagh:

     <http://news.cnet.com/obamas-new-blackberry-the-nsas-secure-pda/>

Manufacturer site and (not very detailed) specs:
     <http://www.gdc4s.com/content/detail.cfm?item=32640fd9-0213-4330-a742-55106fbaff32 
 >

I know next to nothing about the state of the art of secure cell  
devices; do list members have any (public) knowledge or informed  
speculation about the mechanism behind the unclassified/classified  
switches? Are we talking two entire separate CPUs with a mutex-shared  
screen/keyboard? Or just offload of classified processing to a  
separate on-chip security domain (ala ARM TrustZone)? Similarly, the  
manufacturer lists separate class/unclass memory chips and separate  
class/unclass USB ports. Are these sitting on two physically separate  
buses?

Finally, any idea why the Sectéra is certified up to Top Secret for  
voice but only up to Secret for e-mail? (That is, what are the  
differing requirements?)

Cheers,

--
Ivan Krstić <krstic at solarsail.hcs.harvard.edu> | http://radian.org

---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo at metzdowd.com