Some UK Police Force and the Blackberry
I think it’s called South West. Or maybe it’s South East. Who knows. We’re talking Basildon, anyway. Maybe it’s Essex. I think they’re changing it all.
Ok… Let’s call it Essex Police.
Essex Police, I am reliably informed, are pursuing a Blackberry strategy for their officers. Me, I’d have definitely gone Good Mobile Messaging rather than Blackberry.
Anyway. The rather neat news is that they’ve got it so they can send a picture of a suspect, via email, to the Police Officer’s Blackberry. That is wicked. You can request pictures of suspects and what not sent to your handset! Nifty! Access to the Police National Computer by Blackberry is also apparently muted. Interesting.
Now, the only flaw? I gather that Blackberries are only being issued to officers of Inspector level or above. Arse.
I think some front-line officers are getting them in some forces. Good idea I think.
My understanding is that BES was one of the first to do remote wipe (if you think of the early adopters banks/traders, etc. makes sense) - there are lots of policy related/corporate lock-down functionality.
It discusses it further, on the RIM site - http://eu.blackberry.com/eng/services/server/exchange/#tab_tab_features
* Impose device lock-down
Posted by kmara on January 31st, 2007 at 11:49 pm.* Wipe data from lost or stolen devices
* Define and wirelessly enforce security settings such as Bluetooth lockout and controlling access to voice calling
Thanks for the correct kmara — I was just thinking about that as I posted it. Updated the text.
Posted by ewan on January 31st, 2007 at 11:55 pm.Blackberry’s the first commercial product to be certified for use with any level of government-sensitive data too, by their information security authority CESG.
http://www.blackberry.com/uk/products/enterprisesolution/security/certifications.shtml#government
Posted by Ben on February 1st, 2007 at 1:40 am.