Many Catholics and representatives of other Christian denominations from all over the world breathlessly watched the conclave in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, where a new Pope was elected. The conclave started on March 12th and it was probably the most interesting and safest conclave for quite a long time. That was the first time information security was this truly epochal event at such a high stake. The entire Sistine Chapel and Santa Maria residential complex was fitted with signal jammer to prevent data leaks.
Those special cellphone jammers were installed to prevent the 115 cardinals who took part in the election from blocking the use of modern wireless devices, and blocking all surveillance and listening devices in the chapel and the Santa Maria living quarters. Despite the fact that all staff and cardinals swear oaths not to disseminate the information about the electoral process and everything that goes on during the conclave, they still have no rights and now have a way to use all devices for communication.
Many people think that it’s a pretty wise decision. Because wiretapping and surveillance devices are common nowadays, and cardinals are using modern smartphones, which poses a danger. These smartphones have many vulnerabilities and the culprits may have used them for eavesdropping. To do this, it’s enough to hack the target phone via Bluetooth, or install a special app that is able to random phone numbers. In this case, every cell phone in the chapel can be turned into a bug. That this Vatican act will show people who signal cell phone blockers can be very helpful, and that their only goal is to protect your information.
But those weren’t all restrictive measures. Cardinals made a decision awaiting excommunication for anyone trying to break secrecy, despite its scope. Media Relations Director of the US Bishops’ Conference Mary Ann Walsh thinks: “In our electronic age, there is always a risk that someone among the cardinals will use an iPad or tweeter during the conclave”. Such measures are not really new to the conclave, they were adopted in 2005, but then there was no need to use a 3G and 4G jammer devices because smartphones and tablets were not that common and always only an anti – listening devices used.
One of the reasons for these stressful security measures was the fact that there are many young cardinals in this conclave and many of them have their own blogs and microblogs, and the Vatican was really concerned with the possibility of information leaks through these blogs if the conclave would go for it take a really long time. It was such a precedent when a German cardinal gave the name of the newly elected pope to the German press before his name was officially named.