Obama's secure PDA

[Ivan KrstiD]

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 at solarsail.hcs.harvard.edu> | http://radian.org

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