The Defense Information Systems Agency provides 100,000 service members and civilians unclassified mobility solutions, according to a June 11 news release from the organization.
That means users can access news, banking and fitness applications on mobile devices such as cell phones and tablets.
Here are five facts that help explain what kind of progress the Department of Defense is making with mobility:
- Of the 100,000 mobile users, roughly 1,600 users are described as classified mobility customers allowing them to access email, voice, video.
- Just about 48 of those 100,000 devices have access to top secret information.
- There is no special phone. Both the unclassified and classified solutions are provided by commercially available devices.
- Approval of new DoD-centric applications can now take as long as five weeks. But that’s down from the 12-18 months that agency officials were predicting the task would take in 2017.
- By the end of the calendar year, agency officials hope to complete a mobility classified capability gateway that will provide mobile access to secret servers and will be located outside the United States. Agency officials have noted that phase 1 of a Department of Defense mobile endpoint protection prototype has been completed. Two vendors were selected from 25 proposed solutions during phase 2.
Mark Pomerleau is a reporter for C4ISRNET, covering information warfare and cyberspace.
