There are some unhappy seamen in the U.S. today, now that the Navy has locked down their BlackBerrys to some pretty rigorous standards. PIN-to-PIN messaging, GPS, the application loader and third-party program installations have all been restricted, and as usual users will have to cycle through alphanumeric passwords every 3 months. On top of that, after 5 unsuccessful log-ins the device gets locked down and local data erased. For extra security, BlackBerrys’ radio antennae will become deactivated whenever they’re hooked up to a desktop. To be fair, these aren’t incredibly tough standards to work with, especially for a military organization. It does, however, give corporate IT admins something to wave when their BlackBerry users complain about existing restrictions.
Posted by Simon Sage in BES Administration, News
I work for the Air Force, and our BB8800s lock after an hour of unused activity. Amusingly, we were able to get them purchased and approved only to come and find out the Air Force has not approved the 8800 model for use. We were told we may have to turn them in and get 8700s. Ridiculous.
These measures don’t look extraordinarily tough. I work for one of the wireless carriers, and have a blackberry. The measures you outline are almost the same as the ones enforced here.
I did not expect the US Navy to be so permissive. We (German Bank) have the same restrictions (except GPS) plus the device gets locked after 30 minutes inactivity and after 60 minutes even if the user is active. Not to mention that we don’t have any desktop software installed…
Why is GPS disabled? Is there something we should know about GPS?
I am the BlackBerry Administrator for a government agency in Australia & we have very similar IT Policies to those Martin mentioned. I’d be highly suprised & concerned if any Defence department, Government agency, or bank didn’t have such restrictive policies.
RSS Feed
Seidio Rubberized Hard Case for Extended Battery Buy Now: $32.95
Swiss Mobility Madison Nylon Side Pouch Buy Now: $29.95
Swiss Mobility Lara Side Pouch Buy Now: $29.95
Mobi Products Screen Protectors (3-Pack) Buy Now: $29.95
BodyGuardz Protective Skin Buy Now: $24.95
Jun 06: Bplay launches new BlackBerry games and themes: Hulk, iBerry 2.0, Guitar Dude and more
Jun 06: Mike Lazaridis donates $50M to Waterloo physics center
Jun 06: Roger releases pink BlackBerry 8310, BlackBerry Bold coming June 17th
Jun 06: RIM and Tlkomsel announce prepaid BlackBerry solution in Indonesia
