Obama to get NSA-secured BlackBerry 8830

By Flora Graham on 27 April 2009, 11:50am

President Barack Obama will soon be accessing all his top-secret alien-autopsy info on a super-secure BlackBerry 8830 -- soon to be renamed BlackBerry One, we're sure.

Since he moved into the White House, Obama's had to make do with a Windows-powered Sectéra Edge, which repels hackers by the sheer force of its uglyness. But the Washington Times reports he'll be back in the warm embrace of RIM in the next few months.

Obama's BlackBerry love is well-documented, and he looks to be dragging the US presidency into the late 20th century. Apparently, Bill Clinton sent only two email messages as president and George W Bush ceased using email upon his inauguration in January 2001, but said he was looking forward to emailing "my buddies" after leaving Washington DC.

The presidential BlackBerry will run software called SecureVoice, developed by a US company called Genesis Key in consultation with RIM. The Telegraph reports that Obama may have to wait up to 50 minutes to receive emails while they're scanned for viruses and PowerPoint slideshows of cute puppies.