Iceland Volcano Has PM Running Norway from an iPad

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Among those stranded by last week's new eruption of an Icelandic volcano was Jens Stoltenberg, prime minister of Norway, who on Friday found himself stuck in JFK, according to reports.

Fortunately, he'd just bought an iPad, and proceeded to conduct the daily business of the country in the airport lounge.

"It's interesting. Here you have a brand-new technology and a head of state actually using the technology to manage the country," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, as quoted in a report by Newsfactor.com. "It either says an awful lot about the device or an awful lot about what he needs to do to manage the country." He went on to discuss the potential security liabilities in Stoltenberg's action.

The Norwegian PM story was just one of many to hit the Internet regarding Eyjafjallajokull, ranging from and videos of the eruption to the implications on animal husbandry to guides on pronouncing its name. There were also metastories, such as how people were using the Internet to deal with the incident.

Pre-existing Twitter feeds from Iceland, such as the and This Is Iceland, continued their usual posts. "I must admit, my eruption is a bit dramatic," stated the latter yesterday, which is always written in first-person form from the island itself. Currently, it is taking suggestions for the volcano's theme song, such as David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes." (Incidentally, the Twitter hashtag for volcano-related items is #ashtag.)

Icelanders, who get a volcanic eruption every five years on average and hold regular volcano drills, are dealing with the situation with equanimity. "Roughly speaking, up to 90% of Iceland, including the Reykjavik [capital] area, have not been affected by the eruption in any direct way," noted one of the status reports. "All infrastructure of the country is unaffected, except roads in the flooding area below the glacier."

The report went on to add that approximately 1,800 tourists are stranded on the island, and not only are they all accommodated, but they have all been given free passes to the country's numerous museums, as well as to the municipal public swimming pools and Jacuzzis -- all geothermally heated -- that even the smallest towns boast. (Reykjavik, with a population of 200,000, has four.) This measure is very popular among the tourists, the report notes.

"My people take my volcanic activity very seriously but they do not make a big fuss," This Is Iceland said.

Dani AI

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As observes, the story underlines two things: tablets make it easy to keep working while stranded, and they expose sensitive work to public risks. For routine, low-risk tasks a consumer tablet is usually fine. For decisions that affect national security, however, a short checklist and layered controls are essential.

Main risks to consider: eavesdropping or man‑in‑the‑middle attacks on public Wi‑Fi; device loss or theft; shoulder‑surfing and visual data leakage; account compromise through cached sessions or weak authentication; and malware or malicious profiles on the device.

  • Use a personal cellular hotspot rather than public Wi‑Fi; always add a trusted VPN when sending sensitive data.
  • Require strong authentication: long passcode plus a separate second factor (hardware token or separate phone), never both on the same device.
  • Harden the tablet: enable full device encryption and auto‑lock, disable automatic Wi‑Fi join and Bluetooth, and turn off sharing services.
  • Avoid storing classified documents locally; use ephemeral sessions or a remote desktop/bastion to access internal systems.
  • Keep the OS and apps up to date and restrict app installs via mobile device management (MDM) for official devices.
  • Disable automatic cloud sync/backups while on public networks and remove saved credentials after the session.
  • Use end‑to‑end encrypted messaging or approved secure mail for sensitive communications; avoid sending attachments unless encrypted.
  • Prepare for loss: ensure remote wipe is enabled, maintain secure backups, and log/audit all administrative actions performed remotely.

For heads of state or similarly sensitive roles, the best practice is to use government‑managed, preconfigured devices and secure channels. When that is not available, follow the checklist above and restrict high‑impact decisions until a verifiably secure environment is available.

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