Pentagon Disconnects iPhone, Android Security Service, Forcing a Return to BlackBerry for Some

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.nextgov.com/mobile/2013/12/defense-disconnects-iphone-android-security-service-forcing-return-blackberry-some/74753/

By Aliya Sternstein
Nextgov.com
December 3, 2013

Some military members who were working off Apple and Android-based 
smartphones and tablets now must return to using older model BlackBerrys 
because of a security service switchover, according to an email obtained 
by Nextgov and confirmed by Pentagon officials.

The Defense Department is building a new mobile device management system 
to monitor government-issued consumer smartphones on military networks, 
but it's not yet ready for prime time.

Employees within at least one Army organization were forced to disconnect 
iPhones, iPads and Android devices from their existing security service, 
Good Mobile Messaging, because the Pentagon is deploying a new 
departmentwide system by Fixmo, states an email that appeared in an Army 
listserve.

Army personnel "have been told that between now and whenever this 'fixmo' 
is online, their Droids and iThings are simply to become useless," the 
email said. The Defense Information Systems Agency is in the midst of 
transitioning smartphone users in each military component to the full $16 
million system.

[...]



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