Exxon Outfits CEO With ‘Secure’ Phone

WallStreetJournal
The whole country is now worried about the specter of cyber attacks that will bring down the electricity grid. Big Oil is worried about another kind of cybersecurity: eavesdropping. Exxon spent $222,985 last year on security for chairman and chief executive Rex Tillerson. The bulk of that went for standard-issue stuff: a car and driver, and residential security.
But just over $9,000 apparently went for his phones, listed in Exxon’s proxy statement as security expenses “for mobile phones and other communications equipment for conducting businSecuring high-level conversations in an age where everybody has a cellphone has become something of a national obsession.
After he won the election, President Obama warned handlers would have to “pry” his Blackberry out of his hands; he eventually was equipped with a special secure phone rigged up by the National Security Agency.ess in a secure manner.”
But corporate chieftains—especially globe-trotting oil execs–can’t live in a communications-free bubble, which would explain Exxon’s expenditure on Mr. Tillerson’s secure mobile phones.

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