Posted on November 9, 2007, at 8:43 am .
A new UK military technology that was initially aimed at providing protection against biological warfare may soon find its way onto portable electronics. Developer P2i specializes in what’s called “ion-mask plasma surface enhancement”, which covers covers materials tightly with an extremely thin water-repellent film. By using high-energy plasma, devices can get coated inside and out without damaging electronics.
“Ion-mask is extremely effective against the problem of moisture ingress as it can be applied to the most intricate electronic objects without damaging the precious circuitry,” explains P2i’s Business Development Director, Ian Robins. “The process is particularly well suited to high value applications such as MP3 players, which are required to perform outdoors in all weather conditions, or other small, lightweight electronic items which may be inadvertently worn in the shower or while swimming.”
Yeah, I accidentally hop in the shower with my BlackBerry all the time.
Posted on October 26, 2007, at 11:17 am .
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 on October 18, 2007, at 7:34 am .
If you were ever wondering why the BlackBerry wasn’t secure enough for France, you might want to take a look at the Sectéra Edge, the smartphone that’s being developed for the NSA and soldiers in the field. Some of the security features include:
* Secure wireless access to the SIPRNET and NIPRNET
* DoD PKI enabled Common Access Card (CAC) support
* Supports DoD 8100.2 requirements
* Type 1 encrypted storage of classified data
* Can be used inside closed areas with “SCIF-Friendly” mode
On top of that, this thing was built extra-rugged for combat conditions, as seen in their demo video. The Edge works on CDMA, GSM and Wi-Fi, and also plays nice with S/MIME BlackBerry users. Apparently the NSA has ordered up $300-million-worth of these things over the next five years, so if you’re in the U.S. Army, keep your eyes peeled.
