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Showing posts from April, 2013

How Obama's BlackBerry got secured

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(Updated: January 26, 2018) Around January 20, 2009, when Barack Obama took over the office of president of the United States, there was quite a lot of media attention about the fact that he had to give up his BlackBerry, because it was considered to be a security risk. This caused almost world wide media attention, but the follow-up was less accurately covered and a number of different stories were told. Here we will show that Obama actually kept his beloved BlackBerry, but only after it had been secured by special encryption software and some additional security measures. Barack Obama using his BlackBerry 8830 during the election campaign in 2008 (Photo: Getty Images) Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, also used a BlackBerry during the 2000 presidential campaign, but had to give it up, as well as the use of any e-mail software, upon taking office. Three days earlier, he sent out a final e-mail to 42 friends and family members to inform them that he would no longer correspond

The phones and the iMac of Kim Jong-un

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Last week, North Korea said that it entered a "state of war" with neighboring South Korea. According to a report from the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) this includes a threat to "dissolve" the United States mainland too. On Friday, March 29, KCNA also released some pictures of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un , giving a rare look at some of his communications equipment: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presides over an urgent operation meeting at the Supreme Command in Pyongyang, March 29, 2013. (Photo: KCNA through Reuters) Quite surprisingly we see that at the right side of the table, there's an aluminum unibody iMac computer (with a corded keybord and mouse). This computer is made by the American manufacturer Apple and is an iconic capitalist lifestyle item. If this isn't a fake remake, it's a bit strange that we see this computer here, because there's a full US embargo for exporting products to North Korea. Probably the iMac