A press officer accompanying Felipe Calderon, the president of Mexico, at a North American summit in New Orleans has been accused of swiping from 2 to 7 BlackBerry communicators belonging to White House staff. The smartphones were left outside a room in which various parties were meeting with President George W. Bush. Secret Service personnel were apparently using video surveillance on that area, but no officers were monitoring what might have been seen as sensitive equipment.

Have no fears. The Secret Service were alerted to the loss, spotted their potential culprit, and accosted Rafael Quintero Curiel at the airport before he boarded a plane. After an encounter that has been described differently whether you read the account by Fox News, the Los Angeles Times, or Mexican source EXonline, Curiel allegedly claimed that he believed the two to seven BlackBerrys (quantities differ) belonged to Mexican officials, and then returned them to the Secret Service. Curiel told the LA Times that it was all a misunderstanding, and that he retrieved two BlackBerrys that were left behind, leaving them with another official. The Associated Press reports that Curiel was fired, however.

Regardless of the precise details, this is exactly why BlackBerrys can be remotely bricked. With the proper authentication, an IT staff or Research in Motion can cause a BlackBerry to erase its data and then brick itself - the analogy of being as functional as a brick - rendering it unusable. BlackBerrys are widely used by the U.S. government, and a variety of security features, including this one, explain why it's allowed to be used and why it's so popular.

This is also part of Apple's iPhone strategy: their iPhone 2.0 software will add a host of enterprise-related smartphone features, including server-based email push, but also remote bricking.

I expect in the future, a Secret Service officer may be handed BlackBerrys instead of them being left in a pile outside of meeting rooms.

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