Mobility and Security for Military Devices

We expect our smartphones and tablets to give us quick access to information—anytime, anywhere.

But what if that information is critical to national security? How can government leaders use mobile technology to view privileged data without opening themselves up to a new host of security concerns? That was the challenge facing our nation’s top government leaders at the Department of Defense (DOD).

Every day, the DOD uses controlled unclassified and classified information to make real-time decisions about world events, such as nuclear threats, cyber attacks, or civil unrest.

Yet DOD leaders can’t pick up their personal mobile device and start communicating with one another. Their government-issued mobile devices—equipped with live full-motion video feeds for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; email; voice; and other command and control communications—need special security, all while maintaining a user experience like that of their personal devices. Booz Allen was called in to help.

Starting with a four-person team in 2012, Booz Allen collaborated with our clients to develop a mobile-first strategy and a plan to get there. In addition to large compute power, the DOD mobile devices needed security to address strategic communications at various classification levels.

Booz Allen deployed a small pilot of a few thousand unclassified users. At the time, the team didn’t realize how big the project was going to become, ultimately requiring the collective knowledge of experts across the entire firm.

Since then, the project has grown dramatically. In just 6 years, we’ve transformed the agency’s IT enterprise, developing and delivering core secure mobile capabilities—with an integrated framework of engineering and requirements, rigorous testing and evaluation, and strategy and governance.

More than 100,000 DOD mission partners are now using the secured devices, enabling secure mobile communication at three different classification levels, including Top Secret for senior executive leaders. Whether it’s a government official or a tactical user overseas, we’re enabling real-time access to data and services to enhance open collaboration and near real-time decision making.

Now that the DOD is mobile first, it’s time for the next step in their transformation. We’re further supporting the enhancement of the DOD mobile enterprise, introducing sophisticated capabilities like location-based awareness and mobile threat detection. The result: We’re able to deliver the secure, reliable mobile ecosystem our clients require to evolve to a mobile workforce.