Obama's 'spy-proof' BlackBerry still a security risk, claims Microsoft

Washington, Jan 27 (ANI): While President Barack Obama would be keeping his BlackBerry, experts have raised concerns that the device might fail to provide enough security for the president.

On January 22, a White House spokesman addressed the media saying the President will keep his BlackBerry "to stay in touch with senior staff and a small group of personal friends in a way that use will be limited and that the security is enhanced."

However, Microsoft has questioned why the president has to rely on the Research In Motion device, whose maker is based in Canada.

"You would be sending your data outside the country," Fox News quoted Randy Siegel, a Microsoft enterprise mobile strategist who works on federal government projects, as saying.

He added: "We wouldn't want the casual musings or official communications of the most important person in the world being intercepted by others."

He stressed that even if RIM routed information through a U.S. data centre, the devices aren't built to NSA's security specs.

RIM, however, declined to comment on the issue.

In fact, he proposed that a better alternative would be a National Security Agency-approved device, such as the Sectera Edge.

The Edge, made by defense contractor General Dynamics and powered by Microsoft's Windows CE software, is a smartphone that secures voice as well as data use. (ANI)