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Cutting Through the Red Tape: Why the Benefits of Going Mobile

Outweigh the Risks for Government Agencies

Paul Brubaker, director of government solutions, AirWatch® by VMware®

At a recent conference in Washington, D.C., government and industry experts convened to
discuss how mobility is transforming security and intelligence around the world. Among the
many topics at the conference, it was clear that mobile technology could be the next frontier for
greater government productivity and effectiveness.

However, questions still exist about the security, privacy and regulation of mobile devices,
stalling their adoption across the government sector. Unfortunately, this means that, while
agencies wait for a perfect solution, they are missing prime opportunities to take advantage of
mobility.

To help with these concerns, the Department of Defense (DoD) has been tasked with creating
multiple mobile device focused initiatives, including the Mobility Unclassified Capability (DMUC)
and Defense Mobility Classified Capability (DMCC) guidelines.

These plans include establishing clear encryption and security standards for deploying
applications, email and content to employee-accessible devices. Additionally, the plans also call
for selecting an enterprise mobility management platform that meets the standards of the
Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG), a resource meant to outline parameters for
devices accessing DoD networks.

Although these initiatives are promising starting points, agencies overall have yet to embrace
mobility for two main reasons. The first reason is how technology is approved by the DoD for
government use.

Because current government technology is built to be incredibly secure, new devices and
software must go through rigorous testing and numerous approvals before being integrated,
creating a bottleneck in the adoption process.
The second reason concerns the DoD’s approach to mobility as a whole. As an organization
that continuously prepares for potential technological threats, the DoD employs detailed
planning procedures to predict where technology is headed.

However, the rapidly changing technology industry is nearly impossible to predict, leaving
complicated DoD procedures unable to readily address new innovations. Agencies end up
hitting a wall of red tape, and new technologies are left unexplored.

Despite the gap between mobility and agency adoption, there is still a demand for it among
government employees. The reality is that despite their employers’ best efforts, many
employees are already working in ways that may not be secure.

62 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – December 2014 Edition
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