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 SectC)ra 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-a742-551 06fbaff32
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 SectC)ra 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 KrstiD <krstic@solarsail.hcs.harvard.edu> | http://radian.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo@metzdowd.com