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Android Approved By Pentagon
sfcrazy writes "The Pentagon has approved a version of Android running on Dell hardware to be used by DoD officials, along with the BlackBerry. The approval of Android by the DoD is a major setback for Apple's iPhone. This doesn't mean that DoD employees can use any Android phone. The Pentagon has approved only Dell's hardware running Android 2.2. Interestingly Dell recently discontinued its Streak phone which runs Android 2.2. Dell is now offering Dell Venue which runs on Android 2.2. So, this is the phone which DoD employees can use."
I guess they won't be getting Ice Cream Sandwich without rooting either.
Silence is a state of mime.
... I have a hard time believing the open-source-ness of Android played any real part in the decision, no matter what TFA says. Someone at Dell made the right deal with the right people at the Pentagon.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Actually, DOD employees have been allowed to use iOS devices since November with approval of their CIOs, and the same 'blanket' approval which Android 2.2 just received is forthcoming. So much FUD....
How about a headline that goes:
Dell scores one with Android
More accurate, right?
I've always wondered how the military et al cope with things like Carrier IQ. Do they get special builds of iOS and Android that exclude it? How do they keep top secret data from leaking out to third parties?
There aint no pancake so thin it doesn't have two sides.
That would be an affront to the Free Market (pbui).
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/steelcloud-announces-new-dod-platforms-for-securing-good-technology-and-apple-ios-128885828.html ASHBURN, Va., Sept. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ ---- SteelCloud, Inc. (OTCQB: SCLD.PK), a leading developer of mobility appliance and VMware® solutions today announced the release of MobileWorks, its newest mobile appliance developed for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). In conjunction with the recent approval of the use of Apple® iOS devices within the DoD, SteelCloud is pleased to offer the immediate availability of MobileWorks DE for the STIG and security configuration guidance compliant platform deployment of the Good For Government mobile security suite.
Watch those corners
and they just lost that exclusivity. The article was rather down on iOS but I got that this means Android got the nod going forward.
The competition is good for everyone as long as one player isn't dominating and controlling. So, it's really not a big deal for Apple and it may cause some benefits should Apple want back into that game.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
I wouldn't be too quick to use this stupid article as any sort of actual insight into the DoD. What this person is claiming is mostly incorrect.
Because the author of the article is an idiot and probably has no DoD experience or works in any capacity within or contracting for the DoD.
Don't ask, don't D^htell.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The idea that Windows' source code is some massive secret is rather funny. It is closed source, but it is no secret. Not only do governments have it (which they require if it is to be used for anything classified) but universities do too. MS licenses it to various universities with some conditions. Students can see it and mess with it, but not copy it and that kind of thing.
Any OS the DoD is going to use, they'll have the code for. So to them Windows and Android are no different in that regard.
The DOD does not build anything. They pay contractors to do that.
FTA
Starts & Stripes repots, “Android, developed by Google and other companies, is open source software meaning it can be easily configured by uses – including DOD tech whizzes who want to install security measures.”
The Army is already doing widespread testing of prototype smartphone-like devices for use in combat, These devices could change the Army's tactics, reports Stars & Strips.
The author is an idiot who can't spell writing for a magazine that doesn't copy edit.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
With said source, you need actual EXPERIENCED coders (and time) to TRULY "get the hang of it" & what's going on inside it... Windows NT, the forerunner/ancestor of modern Windows OS'? Last I knew of, it had 30 million++ lines of code (means TIME, bigtime, to understand)... it's not gotten smaller in modern varieties either (think Win7/Srv2k8).
Which is, after all, EXACTLY why the MOST DANGEROUS "hacker/cracker" types, are coders... because only coders, experienced ones (not 'script kiddies') mind you, have the understanding of these things!
(Not just "any coders" either - what's required's actually, a "combined threat" type, that understands coding AND networking + OS' & how to use them @ the "lowest levels" - takes YEARS to DECADES too, & on many OS (though the principles of them ALL are pretty much the same & they access the same types of hardware + networks too)).
Those are the guys you have to "look out for" (& then again, so does the NSA/CIA etc., because they're what they recruit!)
* Put it THIS way: Trust me, I know...
(Now, if YOU want to know too, & see examples? Then, I suggest you all take a trip over to rootkit.com & see "what shakes" there... that site? It'll "school U" (or anyone, & I don't care WHO you are... pretty amazing stuff gets pointed out there!)).
APK
P.S.=> However - The main thing closed source OS have going for them's that NOT EVERYONE HAS THEIR CODE, & I'll tell you, right now/point-blank, that finding "security holes" in "OPEN SORES" code's a hell of a lot simpler/easier than in closed source stuff & especially "for the masses" (because ANYONE can get say, Linux' code, & a compiler + "step trace" thru it for finding said potential "bugs"). That's simpler, faster, & EASIER than trying to disassemble or use a "fuzzer" on closed source code...
... apk
Now China can scan all of the DOD's data without having to put spies into America. Go Dell.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
but you need to war dial to get the number and then find the back door password.
Read up on that, ignore the article.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
What do they care? They're the Military, for chrissake. Messes are their specialty. They even call the place they eat a "mess".
We just saw how more than half the politicians tremble at the mere mention of a cut to military spending. The even tremble at a mention of a cut in the increase in military spending. Hell, if you run Xe or a company like it or a military contractor you don't even have to ask the government for money. They just get their own checkbooks and have at it.
You are welcome on my lawn.
What's wrong with that? The government is limited on how much they can spend on individuals. However, the expense of using highly expensive 3rd part non-governmental companies does not violate the government pay scale. The military is a prime example. Their reliance on advanced technology forces them to use non-governmental and non-military resources to develop. implement, and operate their systems.
The reality is that DOD has issued a Secure Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) that must be followed if you are trying to get a Designated Approving Authority (DAA) to issue an Approval To Operate (ATO). Actually implementing a secure architecture and getting approval for sensitive unclass, much less classified is a whole different issue.
I guarantee that approval means the user will not have Android market access and will not be able to arbitrarily install applications. Depending on the setup, an approved android phone may very well have less capability than a Blackberry.
That was a great move...Google is unstoppable...
Did the approved phones include CarrierIQ? Perhaps it is required by the government :-)
Keep the Classic Slashdot.
Lets see what the article says...
This seems to say that there was only one reason, and it's due to the open source nature of Android. If this was the only reason, why did they also continue to support Blackberry?
(They linked to an old Ars article born in the hype of locationgate)
And yep, so does Android. And Windows Phone 7, and Blackberry, and Symbian, and any other AGPS system. Locationgate was a big deal only because people made it so. The "app" that was written to show the problem didn't actually plot the correct data, it "obscured it to protect people". The unobscured data would have shown it was simply the locations of cell towers and wifi spots, not where the phone was. Buy hey, why let facts that have been well known for over a year get in the way of posting a sensationalized story a year+ down the road.
*sigh*
We need a Jon Stewart of the tech world to at least make fun of these types of horribly inaccurate stories to get some entertainment value out of them. And on a side note, it's sad how many people giddily blast Fox News for always being inaccurate and sensational, while also liking the exact type of inaccurate and sensational stories in the tech world.
It is good that you can still remember potentially incorrect facts 10 years later, it is more of an old "Microsoft Windows 2000 Marketing Blitz Fact" than an actual fact IMO
100M lines of pre-Windows 2000 code here
I say potentially because "lines of code" isn't a great metric, it is hard to know if its apples to apples language wise etc etc
The article states the switch has 100M lines of code, the switch was existence before Windows 2000. 100 million > 30 million. That is the point I was trying to make.