President’s Daily Brief- There’s an app for that: iPad Used to Deliver President’s Daily Briefing

The White House photo of the day for 31 Jan 2012 is one to remember. It shows proof positive that the megatrend towards a consumerization of IT is not only unstoppable, but is changing enterprises everywhere in very positive ways.

The photo, shown below, shows two iPad’s in use, one each for the President and for Robert Cardillo, Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Intelligence Integration. Cardillo is reviewing several key items from the President’s Daily Brief on the iPad.

This is not the first time the iPad has been in the Whitehouse. But to my knowledge this is the first proof that it is being used in this way.

The caption from the photo read:

President Barack Obama receives the Presidential Daily Briefing from Robert Cardillo, Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Intelligence Integration, in the Oval Office, Jan. 31, 2012. Part of the briefing was done using a tablet computer. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

My guesses:

The iPads have probably been modified to have their radios physically disabled or perhaps removed
Cameras and microphones have probably also been removed
They are probably brought in in a satchel and carried out that way too.
If it is true that they have had their radios disabled then they probably don’t have a need for enhanced solutions for encryption and data control. But if they do have their radios enabled I would guess they are running Fixmo Safezone.
Since the caption to the photo said only part of the briefing was delivered this way, there must be some information that is just too sensitive for storing in a mobile device.

I would also conclude that the forward thinking/forward leaning intelligence community leaders that made this happen had to deal with an incredible amount of red tape and security precautions and old think to modernize this process this way, and that means there are some unsung heroes in the community that deserve our thanks. Whoever you guys are, I know the community appreciates what you have done to modernize the presentation of information this way.