82nd Airborne unit told to use Signal or Wickr on government cell phones

Re:82nd Airborne unit told to use Signal or Wickr on governm... by jpeg_hero on Thursday January 23, 2020 @03:53PM (#22131877)

Are we witnessing the start of the combat iPhone? These devices are staggeringly useful, I guess it just makes sense that they find their way into this aspect of human life as well.

> Squad: the #1 small unit combat App

>What's New in 3.14: Enhanced Scout/Recon route setting- select up to 7 types of perimeter security

>In-App Purchase: Unlimited "Friendlies" List - avoid unwanted friendly fire incidents.

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Re:82nd Airborne unit told to use Signal or Wickr on governm... by jauer on Thursday January 23, 2020 @08:17PM (#22134403)

Already exists (well, not iPhone, but...) https://www.samsung.com/us/business/solutions/industries/gov...

And accessories like cases and cables from Kagwerks: https://kagwerks.com/collections/smartphone-cases / https://kagwerks.com/collections/cables/products/usb-3-0-to-... (aside: their training courses are A+)

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Re:82nd Airborne unit told to use Signal or Wickr on governm... by pps43 on Thursday January 23, 2020 @08:33PM (#22134512)

Combat iPhone is ok only in asymmetric warfare. Near-peer adversary will quickly figure out how to exploit it. Russia has already successfully targeted artillery strikes using location of Ukrainian soldier's phones (Android, but this difference is not very important).

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Re:82nd Airborne unit told to use Signal or Wickr on governm... by AndrewKemendo on Thursday January 23, 2020 @08:26PM (#22134462)

We've been using iPhones in combat since at least 09.

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Re:82nd Airborne unit told to use Signal or Wickr on governm... by anon73044 on Thursday January 23, 2020 @06:41PM (#22133626)

CGI Federal/Raytheon has been working on something like this for the last 5-6 years for (AFATDS)

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Re:82nd Airborne unit told to use Signal or Wickr on governm... by CapricornNoble on Thursday January 23, 2020 @08:19PM (#22134413)

I'd argue that ATAK is closer to a "combat iPhone" system than AFATDS, which is uniquely focused on field artillery coordination.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Tactical_Assault_Kit

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Re:82nd Airborne unit told to use Signal or Wickr on governm... by masterjefferson on Thursday January 23, 2020 @09:29PM (#22134844)

I've worked on ATAK. It is a very capable combat tool.

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Re:82nd Airborne unit told to use Signal or Wickr on governm... by mirimir on Friday January 24, 2020 @01:45AM (#22135927)

How do they secure baseband?

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Re:82nd Airborne unit told to use Signal or Wickr on governm... by alexis_fr on Thursday January 23, 2020 @06:14PM (#22133384)

Price: 10k$ per user. Fair enough if we’re billing the army for an app with a huge bug bounty.

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Re:82nd Airborne unit told to use Signal or Wickr on governm... by masterjefferson on Thursday January 23, 2020 @09:28PM (#22134839)

This is old news. Look up ATAK.

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