The NSA Wants Its Very Own Smartphone

The rest of the government has traditionally used Blackberries up to now. Hell, they even get PlayBooks now. Why should the NSA be relegated to ancient secure-phones? Troy Lange, the NSA’s mobility mission manager thinks that sucks. It’s time the NSA got its own smartphone.

Lange’s idea essentially takes the utility of those old General Dynamics Sectera Edge phones and makes them smarter. Right now, NSA mobiles are locked down pretty tight; if an operative wants to check their email, he or she would have to log in at their desk. Even if their phone or laptop registered with the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network.

That’s woefully inefficient. Even SIPRNET-friendly government phones can only talk to one another. Lange contends that its the information that’s classified, and not the devices themselves. So he wants there to be a way to seamlessly access and transmit data across these secure devices in real time. Presumably modified Blackberries with a suite of apps that can maintain the security incumbent on keeping all this classified data safe.

Lange wants these new phones to eventually reach the pockets of all government officials. While I’m not sure the idea will be met with glee, it’s a reasonable one that deserves consideration. [UberReview]

Image: auremar/Shutterstock

Discuss

(3 Comments)
  • [–]

    olearymo

    Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at 2:36 PM

    While it is true that a lot of very badly edited content seems to come out of Giz US mostly, all I could find in this one was:

    “Troy Lange, the NSA’s mobility mission manager thinks that sucks” should have a comma after ‘manager’ and

    “that its the information that’s classified” should have an apostrophe in ‘its’.

    But other than that… am I missing other ones? Or have they tidied it up since your comment Richard?

    • [–]

      olearymo

      Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at 2:39 PM

      Ah, ‘registered wit the’… that’s another.

  • [–]

    Franz

    Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at 5:25 PM

    All fun and games until someone leaves it in a bar in LA.

Join The Discussion