Army Knowledge Online users get secure mobile messaging

Army Knowledge Online (AKO) users will be able to access and send sensitive information through a secure mobile platform using Windows Mobile devices.

Good Technology is working with Northrop Grumman to deploy the Good Mobile Messaging Secure Multipurpose Internet Main Extensions (Good S/MIME) on a broad range of Microsoft Windows Mobile devices to provide secure e-mail to the 2 million registered users of the AKO portal, officials from Good Technology said. 

Good S/MIME will run on Sprint Touch Pro, Verizon XV-6850, AT&T Fuze and other mobile devices. The solution meets Defense Department requirements for secure mobile messaging, providing AKO users with common access card authentication, encryption and signing of e-mail and attachments and automatic over-the-air synchronization of all certificates.

The Good solution will give AKO the flexibility to offer secure mobile messaging across a broad range of phones, said Col. Earl Noble, project manager for Army Knowledge Online/Defense Knowledge Online.

Army Knowledge Online is the enterprise Web portal for the United States Army, offering secure e-mail, file storage and management, instant messaging, and other collaboration tools to soldiers, family members, retirees and other members of the Army community.

S/MIME, a standard for public-key encryption and signing of e-mail encapsulated in MIME, is at the heart of the Good solution, said John Herrema, vice president and chief marketing officer with Good Technology.

The product protects stored data and data in transit with Federal Information Processing Standard-certified 192 bit Advanced Encryption Standard cryptology. IT administrators can remotely lock down hardware components including cameras, Bluetooth, and infrared ports. New temporary passwords can be pushed to the handheld and lost or stolen devices can be remotely erased.

Good’s server is deployed behind the user’s enterprise firewall and connects to Good’s network operations center, Herrema said. As a result, security administrators do not have to open up new ports to let in inbound traffic, he said.

The Good S/MIME solution was certified as a viable mobile messaging platform for the Army's use last year and received the Army's Authority to Operate. The messaging systems went through rigorous third-party testing supervised by the Defense Information Systems Agency, Good officials said.

Good Technology is demonstrating the Good for Enterprise solution in the Verizon booth 727 at the 2009 LandWarNet Conference, Aug. 18-20 at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.