Barack Obama Could Be Using An Encrypted Samsung Handset Instead Of BlackBerry: Report

Past reports suggested that President Barack Obama might finally be able to change his trusted BlackBerry handset for an unnamed phone soon. However, now, a new report says that unnamed device is an Android handset.

During an interview in Jimmy Fallon’s show, Obama urged that he was "this cool high-tech guy" when he entered the White House, CNet reported. But he wasn’t allowed to play with high-tech devices for security reasons. Therefore, a secured BlackBerry handset was given to him at that point.

Now, the same security team has upgraded the BlackBerry handset with a “Samsung Galaxy S4,” ARS Technica reported. However, this Android handset has been encrypted to the highest level.

As it turns out, even the new Samsung phone cannot do much as Obama would like to see. The President recently complained that his phone acts like a 3-year-old's toy phone. His staffs apparently told him "For security reasons -- this is a great phone, state-of-the-art -- but it doesn't take pictures, you can't text, the phone doesn't work, you can't play your music on it."

President’s Samsung Galaxy S4 has reportedly been housed with everything the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) would look for in a handset with maximum security. This device is apparently called a "hardened" Galaxy S4.

In 2014, several Samsung handsets reportedly went through scrutinization under the Department of Defense's Mobility Classified Capability-Secret (DMCC-S) program. Samsung handsets were picked predominantly because of the South Korean tech giant’s main attraction — KNOX enterprise-grade security technology.

From among the handful of devices, only the Galaxy S4 was able to get approved in order to access the “classified SIPRNet defense network,” Phone Arena reported.

Speaking of functionality, the DMCC-S handset reportedly makes use of biometric authentication. However, there apparently is no camera in the device, which means no selfies. To top it off, Obama will not be able to access all Android apps from Google play store. Instead, the app selection is restricted to DISA's Mobile Application Store (MAS).