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Apple Mobile Devices Cleared For Use On US Military Networks
puddingebola writes with this excerpt from a Bloomberg report: "The Pentagon cleared Apple Inc. (AAPL) devices for use on its networks, setting the stage for the maker of iPhones and iPads to compete with Samsung Electronics Co. and BlackBerry for military sales. The Defense Department said in a statement [Friday] that it has approved the use of Cupertino, California-based Apple's products running a version of the iOS 6 mobile platform. The decision eventually may spur a three-way fight for a market long dominated by Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry.'" Also, Apple devices are best for uploading viruses to alien craft.
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so what does IOS 6 military have over the main IOS?
Can you side load easily with it?
Plan: Skynet Expansion right on schedule.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
"a peace symbol sir"
a peace symbol? but dont you sell to the military?
"yes sir"
what are you trying to say soldier?
"something about the duality of man sir"
Can you side load easily with it?
Enterprises could always "side load" (bypass the Apple App Store) their own apps on their own devices.
iOS 6 is most likely specified simply because its the current version. To keep things simple. Want onto the network, then be running the current os version. That and the internal developers needs a min iOS target.
This represents a serious change in Apple's direction. They have avoided the business/enterprise market because they haven't been interested in competing in other, existing markets and certainly never wanted to be held to the same standards as the likes of Dell. But now the government/military market? This is a long way from trying to tie everything together with iTunes.
So now, they will spend millions and more of tax payer money, to create a special store with iOS applications, presumably a special store with Android applications, while still maintaining all of their Blackberry infrastructure.
Um, what? A Enterprise license will cover this scenario and costs $299/yr. It has been place for years.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
This adds many levels of complexity for the infrastructure,and the hiring and training of support personal
for all sorts of devices. Why? What benefit does Pentagon bet from maintaing 3 different platforms
instead of one?
Short term its true, long term its simply stupid. Dependence on a single vendor...whoever they are is simply bad for any business. It keeps the vendors honest (massive cost saving), and better supply chain(another cost saving).
Now whether a closed ecosystem like apple should be considered at all is a different matter.
Some may be wondering how this could be possible when almost all Apple devices have built-in cameras. The military employs a skilled third party to remove them completely instead of just disabling them. Here is some of his work (a Mac with the iSight taken out): http://i40.tinypic.com/2yvs9ki.jpg .
I was at a conference a few years back (LandWarNet, before it was split into pieces) and the SecDef was making the keynote via VTC and was foaming at the mouth for his new iphone 4. This is all top-driven.
Two-Star General Whoever doesnt want a DoD fork of android, he wants an iphone or regular android issued by his command that he can use for official and personal use (shhh!) without having to spend $100/mo on a personal mobile phone contract.
I have LTCs wasting money on devices they dont want to use (apparently the Slate tablet isnt so hot anymore if you need ethernet and a non-bluetooth keyboard) and pestering me for devices they will have no need for (iphone, android offer few advantages over a BB7 device in regards to phone calls and email) even if they could have them or the limitations didnt make them unappealing.
our tax dollars at work, we are financing people's workplace trendiness. some will say 'so what its an iphone, replacing an existing blackberry device and contract', but its much more. Part of the DISA configuration requirements is a management server. Thats enterprise hardware and a service agreement. There will also be funded training for use of the management server. Not to mention some poor SOB will gain an additional side-duty.
the DoD can buy a few Mac's and develop their internal apps for their iphones and droids that will never be able to run on blackberries
US military networks must have an awful lot of RAM and power CPUs then because dropping an Apple bomb on them is quite the system resources burden, lol.
It should be required that ALL of these devices be made in western nations. Otherwise, you can be certain that there will be backdoors in the hardware.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
While all the news and discussion on Slashdot revolves around Apple, there actually IS a fork of Android for DoD and business.
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/mobile/solution/security/samsung-knox
I expect most of the security improvements will also be available for standard Android before too long.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Most likely due to Samsung Knox.
God damn it Siri, I said Call Luke Mostow not Nuke Moscow!
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
I know Americans have poor geography skills, but last I checked, Austin, TX, was in the US. And then Samsung spent $4b upgrading it.
But continue your hater-ade. And Samsung still supplies the A6 processors to Apple. And for final irony, The SGS4. Uses the US-made Exynos processor OUTSIDE NORTH AMERICA. And uses the TSMC-fabbed Qualcomm Snapdragon INSIDE North America.
"ahh fuck stupid spinning beach ball of death"
"just post the launch codes on facebook... hackers can launch the missiles for us"
"ahh the ol' phone in brick with rounded corners trick"
So what you're saying is that both have their CPU manufactured in the USA, both have the physical device manufactured in the east, and only one has tens of thousands employed in the states designing the thing. Notably that same one has already begun moving production of various of their product lines to the US too.
Because they're quite intelligently, avoiding getting stuck in a dead end. Wonder why businesses end up in the modern age with websites that only work on IE6? That's because they apply your thinking. The DoD are doing exactly the right thing here –making sure that all platforms that will reasonably continue into the future are supported correctly, so that they don't have all their eggs in one basket.
Apple is going to find out the hard way that 'fast development/aquisition' means something entirely different to Apple than it does to the military. Apple probably thinks that half a year is a long time, while the military thinks that five/ten years is quite average.
Apple is mistaken if it thinks it's going to play a role above level 'Restricted'. Well, unless it's pilots. But pilots get whatever they want anyway.
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
The Pentagon's had a love/hate relationship with Apple for decades. When I first got there in 1991, one of the politically appointed under-secretaries was a big Mac fan, so that entire directorate, several hundred employees, was outfitted with Macs and we integrated it with the network all while trying to come up to speed on Apple products. When his term was up, the next guy came in and wanted Windows machines.. so out with the Macs, in with the Gateways. It should be easier this time around.
Or, they will do what enterprises across the world are doing - open up a secure way for Android (via Touchdown, but some devices do whole-device encryption to a standard that counts now) and iOS to collect mail / contacts / calendars through MDM profiles, and when everyone switches away from Blackberry, shut down their BES environment and count the savings.
We did that last year in this here Fortune-20 company. The users love it, because they get to use a device they actually like, which they get to go out and choose. The bean counters love it, because we're not paying out the ass for BES and corporate-owned Blackberries that get dropped / crushed / lost. Instead, it's an easy-to-budget stipend to approved users, and a one-time capital cost to stand up the MDM solution, with a small recurring "annual support agreement" expense.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Part of the DISA configuration requirements is a management server. Thats enterprise hardware and a service agreement. There will also be funded training for use of the management server. Not to mention some poor SOB will gain an additional side-duty.
So you dump the BES and use an MDM server that talks to Android, iOS, and Blackberry. There are plenty to choose from.
Gosh, that was hard.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
so bb, goog, and ios are all approved? in the short term, there will be a department of redundant phone platforms department that will waste a lot of money. in the long term, having competitors in the mix will be good for the military and cheaper.
when Steve Jobs was CEO, there was. i cant remember exactly which section, but i remember it. might have been the 'student' section.
the point is that money is being wasted to cater to "important" people's fashion sense.
/will/ be shipped back to america (i am overseas) for $3500, paid $92 per diem (approximate hawaii rate, including weekends), and their salary for a one-to-two week class that cost the govt $20k+ (for a training vendor) to learn whichever product is chosen to manage all these devices. Compared to the wars its a drop in the bucket, but that kind of money would eliminate the need to sequester/furlough a few people on the payroll, or whatever you like. The govt loves to waste money, and this is yet another example.
Macs are de-facto no longer authorized for Army use (no current security baseline, even for a "standalone" system) and *nix is relegeted to the server room. Windows is the only game in town for workstations, yet few have a vocal issue with that (usually just Mac people). So why is there a push for three (BB, Android, and Apple) completely different products and the costs imposed by supporting them as opposed to a single standard that enables mobile computing while simplifying the implementation and lowering the cost? How about whatever apps the army develops or contracts out, now we have three versions that need to be developed and supported.
Why go through all this? Because it has very little to do with enabling anyone, it is trendy and everyone wants their favorite in their pocket.
Had a LTC last week whining about another Battalion's commander having the camera enabled on their blackberry while his was disabled. He wanted it, but couldnt provide any mission-related justification as to why he should have it. This behavior is everywhere, and it wastes far more money, time, and manpower than it should.
Furthermore, while the GSA vegas scandal put the spotlight on government-funded trips, TDY still happens and it costs a lot of money. People
Blackberry is on the way down. They may recover, or they may completely implode and go the way of Nortel. Would you rather have support for other certified devices in place before they implode, or have a notoriously inefficient and prone to corruption entity like the Department of Defense rush to slap together something afterward?
It's smart to hedge bets sometimes.
(This post contains forward looking statements that may not come to pass, regarding the implosion of RIM / BlackBerry)
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
I'm puzzled why you'd put the quotes around "important", and why you attribute all of this to fashion sense. These are important people, and they likely pick their tools and equipment for other reasons than fashion sense.
Last I looked, a LTC would often be found commanding a battalion. He therefore commands several hundred men, more than the company I work for. Moreover, if my CEO screws up badly, there goes my bonus, likely next year's raise, the employee share of the health insurance goes up, and my ESPP-purchased stock gets less valuable. If a battalion commander screws up badly, there go dozens of lives. I suspect I know who's more important here. So, why is it that a LTC shouldn't have a camera in his phone? They can be handy in various ways, and that's valuable, even if he can't come up with a specific justification.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
i use quotes around the word "important" because most (not all) people with a rank above Captain are primadonnas that belive they are far more important in the execution of various things than anyone else. Get ten LTCs in a room together and you'll walk out with ten number one priorities of various actual importance in the grand scheme of things. Their rank is what makes something important, they are trained that way from the beginning of their military career, and most dont differentiate between "random soldier with lesser rank that must obey" and "random civilian of any grade that is allowed to think for themselves".
I should have clarified from the beginning that I am in a strategic (non-combat) environment. The only danger involved is to someone's promotion, which is seen more as a right than something that is earned these days.
Tactical (combat or direct support), its quite different yes, but i have no experience there so i cant comment.
Regarding the camera, DISA provides two "profiles" for the security configuration. The more hardened one has the camera, video recording capability, and other settings locked down. That is the profile we are operating under in my area of the theater. If there is a true requirement for it or use of the camera aides in the accomplishment of some mission, i have no problem flipping the switch, however this was a clear case of commander envy. One guy had a good reason and had the capability, the other guy had neither and was jealous. There must be a level of rigidity in order to maintain a baseline, otherwise eventually there are so many exceptions that they become the baseline. Not a problem if there is a good reason for it, but very often there is not.
Dealing with tedious personality and political crap like that takes my time away from real network defense. Posting on slashdot, too...
The Army in the 1970s tried to impose standards for interoperability. They would create standards and require everyone to implement to their specifications on data formats, on exchange formats on languages on APIs.... It created tremendous technologies, like the internet, but it drove their costs through the roof. Ada is a good example there are only a small number of applications which support Ada and many of them are limited to very specific features. The computer industry is much larger today relative to the size of the military IT and thus American DoD has far less influence.
They don't have enough pull to just go with one standard. They need features from a variety of devices.