The National Security Agency is launching a mobile device capability at the end of this year that will allow its personnel to securely access classified information with their smartphones and tablet computers.
The program, which is a joint effort with the Defense Information Systems Agency, could potentially provide the military services with similar secure information access capabilities. Keep reading →
Top military officials are finally getting a chance to see first hand how tablet computers and smartphones other than their trusted BlackBerrys might work in the line of duty.
As part of previously undisclosed program, 200 mobile devices – including iPads, iPhones, Samsung Galaxy tablets and smartphones – have been issued to senior military personnel: 100 to top leadership in the Pentagon and another 100 to key staff at major commands such as Army Cyber Command and the Training and Doctrine Command. Keep reading →
For the past three years, we’ve been studying how the consumerization of IT has been impacting enterprises, including government. As Unisys’ third annual Consumerization of IT research study indicates, the growth of mobile device use in government and the private sector continues – with 44% of workers now using smartphones at work. That’s a 300% increase from three years ago, according to Forrester Consulting, which conducted the study for Unisys.
Tablets, which were rarely used at all two years ago, are now increasingly becoming the computing device of choice for many in today’s workforce. Driven by the adoption of new end user mobile technologies, government agencies are beginning to create innovative new ways of conducting business. Keep reading →
Some companies, famously, have game rooms for employees. Most organizations require that their employees abstain from gaming while at work, and some go so far as to block not only gaming Websites, but many social sites as well.
When employees bring their own smartphones to work, however, and when they connect to the internet using their own networks, employers cannot simply block a site on their own server and think they’ve solved the problem of distracting technology. Keep reading →
Fueled by the widespread adoption of increasingly powerful mobile devices, we are in the midst of one of the most exciting technology eras ever. Half of American adults now own smartphones and over 20% are already using tablets. This pace of adoption is unprecedented as the first Apple iPhone was only introduced five years ago with the Apple iPad arriving in just the past two years.
The rapid emergence of this mass market has shattered the cost constraints for going mobile for every organization, including government agencies. For a technology geek like myself, what’s most exciting is the opportunity this creates to untether knowledge workers from the desktop so that they can be equally effective in the field. Keep reading →
When most think of the US Federal government some pretty cliché images come to mind. One in particular is the man or woman standing tall with their BlackBerries sticking out of a pocket holster. While this stereotype is often accurate, one major change has occurred over the past few years that has sent a tidal wave throughout public sector IT.
The BlackBerry that once held so tightly by the hip has now been replaced with an iOS or Android device, and it’s not the change in hardware that has Washington running a muck, it’s the power behind the hardware that most of us all know too well as the “Apps”. With apps, an entire Apple and Android enterprise ecosystem has been born and mobile app management or MAM seems to be taking the center stage of both accolade and criticism and the question remains, why? Keep reading →
Mobile file sharing provider Accellion has partnered with Good Technology and Mocana Corp. to introduce three new enterprise content-sharing applications for mobile devices. The applications permit agency employees to share enterprise data, similar to technologies such as Dropbox, YouSendIt and Box, but in a way which meets military-grade security standards, allows multiple levels of authentication, and which works on with a variety of popular devices and applications.
Using Good Technology’s Good Dynamics product, and a similar virtual container product from Mocana, the new mobile apps that Accellion announced this week allows enterprise users to collaborate and view more than 200 different file types, editing and sharing files from a secure, encrypted location using smartphones and tablets. Keep reading →
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will allow its 4,000 employees to use their own iPads and iPhones for work later this year as the agency embraces a new federal digital strategy to reform federal mobility, websites and the sharing of digital services.
Darren Ash, the NRC’s Deputy Executive Director for Corporate Management in charge of the agency’s mobile policy, said the decision to overhaul the way the NRC works with mobile devices aligns with the federal strategy announced Wednesday to increase the mobility of federal workers in a move to improve productivity and lower costs. Keep reading →
An annual study of internet security vulnerabilities released today concluded that “2011 was the first year that mobile malware presented a tangible threat to businesses and consumers.”
The findings, released by Symantec Corp., showed that mobile vulnerabilities nearly doubled, increading by 93% in 2011, with a particular rise in threats targeting the Android operating system. Keep reading →
The days of government-issued BlackBerrys may be waning, but the reason may have less to do with the overwhelming popularity of iPhones and Android-operated devices than with the growing maturity of back-end systems used by agencies to manage their mobile devices.
For the General Services Administration, having an approved and functioning mobile device management system in place was a crucial component in its decision in recent weeks to begin offering its employees a choice over which smartphones and tablets they may use for government work. Keep reading →