Inside the White House Situation Room
As the first post of this weblog about top level telecommunications we start with a nice video about the White House Situation Room, released by the White house on December 18, 2009: As we can see from...
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Does Obama really lack cool phones?
In April last year, US president Obama told some fundraisers that he was disappointed by the communications equipment he found in the White House: "I always thought I was gonna have like really cool...
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Obama on vacation
In the previous post we saw the cool phones the American president uses in his Oval Office. This time we take a look at the telephone equipment he uses when he is on vacation, because "Presidents don't...
View ArticleSwiss video on mobile phone security
This is an informative video from the Swiss television program Einstein, about the potential threats and risks of mobile cell phones:The phone shown in this report is the Secure Mobile Phone Omnisec...
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Highly secure mobile phones
In the previous post we saw that ordinary mobile phones offer only limited protection against eavesdropping. Therefore, special devices are designed to keep conversations safe. Here we will list a...
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Obama using a secure GSM phone
In the previous post we presented a range of highly secure mobile phones. Because of their nature we almost never see officials using them, but here we have a rare picture of US president Obama using a...
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The Washington-Moscow Hot Line
(Updated: November 18, 2012)Today it's exactly 50 years ago that the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 ended without the world falling into a nuclear war. In order to prevent such a risk in the future, the...
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Commander Petraeus' phones
Last week, David Petraeus resigned as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), after admitting he had an extramarital affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell. This led to many news reports...
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Bilateral Hotlines Worldwide
In a previous article we discussed the Washington-Moscow Hotline, being the most famous bilateral hotline. It was soon followed by direct communication links between a number of other countries with...
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Pictures at the NSA's 60th anniversary
Last month, on November 4, 2012, the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States celebrated it's 60th anniversary. The NSA is one of the world's largest intelligence agencies, responsible for...
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A White House staff phone
Earlier, we discussed some of the phones which are used by the US president in his Oval Office. Now we have a picture of a telephone set which was used by White House staff members, presumably in the...
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The Israeli prime minister's red phone
Based upon popular culture, many people think both the US and Russian presidents have a red telephone on their desks, as part of the famous Hotline between both countries. In a previous article we...
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Dutch queen Beatrix' phone
The day before yesterday, queen Beatrix of the Netherlands announced that she will abdicate on April 30, when she will have been on the throne for exactly 33 years. Her efficient, professional and even...
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US State Department red phones
On February 1st, senator John Kerry became the new US Secretary of State, succeeding Hillary Clinton, who held this office since January 2009. John Kerry is just two weeks in office, but we already...
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President Reagan using a STU-II telephone
Here we see a great and very rare, maybe even unique picture of former US president Ronald Reagan using a STU-II secure telephone:President Reagan making an early morning telephone call regarding the...
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Papal telephony
Ealier this month, pope Benedict XVI announced his historical decision to step down from his office on February 28, 2013. This makes him the first pope to resign since 1415! Therefore, a good moment to...
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The phones and the iMac of Kim Jong-un
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...
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How Obama's BlackBerry got secured
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...
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General Dynamics secures commercial smartphones for classified information
In February this year, the communications division of defense contractor General Dynamics presented a software platform called GD Protected. This is the first product that secures commercial available...
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Are the NSA's PRISM slides photoshopped?
(Updated: June 10, 2013)Yesterday, Thursday June 6, The Washington Post and The Guardian came with a breaking news story about a Top Secret NSA program called PRISM, which reportedly collects data...
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