Mobile and Wireless

FCC proposes to strengthen cybersecurity of emergency alert systems

Emergency alert system participants would be required to disclose cyber breaches within 72 hours of discovery.

  • By Edward Graham

Labor iPhone app can help employees keep the boss in check

Labor Department's smart phone application helps workers keep track of hours.

  • By GCN Staff

The state of broadband resources, all in one place

The National Broadband Map, the biggest dataset of its kind, supports the drive to extend high-speed Internet service to everyone.

  • By Richard W. Walker

Smart phone of the future: A chip in your head?

Speculation that, in 75 years or so, a brain microchip could enable communications sounds like science fiction, but such as technology would have practical applications.

  • By Greg Crowe

Army app market to let customers have it their way

In the six-month pilot, users will be able to post requirements that developers can try to fill with existing or custom-made solutions.

  • By Greg Crowe

Why the new WiFi standard means fast times for wireless nets

It’s all about spectrum allocation, and devices with access to the 60 GHz band, 802.11ac devices would have enough to transmit uncompressed video, for example.

  • By Greg Crowe

With eduroam, university users get secure WiFi access to the cloud

The wireless Internet service, widely used in Europe, is being expanded in the United States by Internet2, the University of Tennessee and the National Science Foundation.

  • By William Jackson

Android malware builds 3D model of user's environment

A team from Indiana University frames PlaceRaider as a potential tool for burglars, but what if it got into government buildings?

  • By Kevin McCaney

The Wireless Gigabit Alliance: IEEE's not-so-secret society

The Wireless Gigabit Alliance, also known as WiGig,has been tasked by the IEEE to discover new ways to expand into gigabit-plus wireless communications.

  • By Greg Crowe

802.11ac WiFi could help agencies cope with BYOD

The emerging WiFi standard could double the speed of your agency's wireless network ... once you have the equipment to take advantage of it.

  • By Greg Crowe

From shipments to socks and ants, RFID is tagging everything

Modern RFID tags are only a few millimeters in size and comprise a chip, antenna and in some cases a battery (active). Some forms of RFID tags (passive) have no battery, but actually take power from the electromagnetic beams of a reader, and then send data back to the source. These tags can theoretically last forever, since they only send data or require power when actually being pinged by a reader device. Almost all RFID tags can be inserted into almost anything and do not require line of sight back to a reader. Some tags are so tiny that they have been glued to the backs of ants to track their behavior.

  • By John Breeden II

Army puts a 4G battlefield telemedicine system to the test

A real-time system that connects medics on the battlefield with surgeons at a hospital would save lives, if it can be made to work.

  • By Kathleen Hickey

My other car is a smart phone

Cisco wants to network and IP-enable vehicles, which could be a boon for emergency response crews, among others.

  • By Greg Crowe

NOAA, Navy swimming with the SHARCs

Unmanned ocean-going Wave Gliders proving useful for research and, perhaps, much more.

  • By John Breeden II
Featured eBooks

Keys to mobile security: Consistent controls, user common sense

GAO report on mobile threats concludes that certain agencies, and all users, can help improve security.

  • By Greg Crowe

iPhone erodes BlackBerry's last enterprise edge – security

IT administrators, noting steady improvements to the iPhone's security since its debut, are finding fewer reasons to hold on to BlackBerry.

  • By Greg Crowe

What is LTE, and why is it right for a public safety network?

The details of a national public safety network have yet to be worked out, but the consensus is it will be based on the emerging Long Term Evolution standard.

  • By William Jackson

Public safety network has ‘eye-opening’ first real-world test

Police on the street and in the crowd used iPhones for encrypted voice, data and video, free of the congestion that can hamper a commercial wireless network.

  • By William Jackson

Chip encrypts Android calls, without the lag time

TrustCall system can turn almost any Android phone into a secure communication device.

  • By John Breeden II

GOP platform: Sell off government spectrum

The pro-business platform calls for auctioning off surplus RF spectrum and condemns government regulation of the Internet — except when it should be regulated.

  • By William Jackson

The grace period on mobile security is over

As the bad guys turn their attention to mobile devices, the government has begun mapping out security that needs to be incorporated in coming generations of this technology.

  • By William Jackson