Handhelds seen empowering officers, security personnel

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.eet.com/sys/news/OEG20021001S0067

[There's a quote by Adm. Grace Murry Hopper that has always stuck with
me, "Some day, on the corporate balance sheet, there will be an entry
which reads, "Information"; for in most cases the information is more
valuable than the hardware which processes it" 

Such is the case with the new breed of handhelds, I can only imagine
what a handheld is worth in the wrong hands, and hope that along the
with valuable databases being designed for homeland security, military
and law enforcement applications, security and security policy is
being built in at the same time.  -  William Knowles]

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By Stephan Ohr
EE Times
Oct 1, 2002 

LOS ANGELES - "A failed battery was responsible for the bombing of 
friendly troops in Afghanistan," John Inkley, manager of federal sales 
for Palm Corp., told the Power2002 conference here today (Oct. 1). A 
handheld GPS position finder failed to reset properly after its 
battery was replaced, and gave incorrect target information to a 
bomber, he said. 

Having grabbed his audience's attention for a presentation on 
"Homeland Security Applications for Handheld Devices," Inkley 
described other related applications, including a national fire 
incident reporting system, a surveillance database transmitter for 
suspicious individuals, and a site profile mobile threat-assessment 
database for weapons of mass destruction. 

The goal of putting such databases in handhelds is to prevent 
terrorist attacks, reduce vulnerability to attacks, and aid recovery 
in the event of an attack, Inkley said. 

If a law enforcement officer discovers a package in a crowded 
auditorium and estimates that it includes 30-lb. worth of explosives, 
a handheld database could indicate the probable blast zone for those 
explosives based on their location within the auditorium, and estimate 
the probable "kill zone" area from which personnel should be evacuated 
first. Such applications are already being developed for a $250 PDA, 
Inkley said. 

Such applications would create a big market for PDAs, as over 
one-million firefighters, one-million state and local law enforcement 
officers, 250,000 registered medical technicians and 30,000 airport 
screeners are employed in the United States, according to Inkley's 
estimates. 


Privacy sidestepped

Skirting the issue of privacy, he said a single driver's license 
number could open a database to reveal every residence used by an 
individual over a 15-year period. Information on medical histories, 
medical contacts and treatment cues could also be provided, he said. A 
handheld can bring "the right information at the right time" to field 
personnel, Inkley said. 

Information caches such as a terrorist acts database could aid a 
mobile site profiler to ensure a location is relatively safe from 
terrorist penetration. Even before 9/11, the U.S. secret service 
routinely checked every site to be visited by the standing U.S. 
president. Such information gathering could rely on handhelds to 
perform background checks on the staff for a hotel or convention 
center, and for everyone will access to that site, Inkley said. Some 
300 agents were equipped with Palm computers before 9/11, and that 
number will rise, Inkley said. 

The goal is not only to put information into agents' or analysts' 
hands, but to help them "connect the dots" to determine if a realistic 
threat exists by drawing from a broad field of stimuli, Inkley said. 

In a separate presentation at Power2002, Iain Morris, senior vice 
president for emerging technologies at Hewlett-Packard Co., said that 
police officers are currently carrying pocket PCs in such cities 
around the world as Sacramento, Calif.; Daytona, Fla.; and Singapore. 

"Walk softly and carry a pocket PC," he advised. 




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