Did Rumsfeld ban camera phones in Iraq? No.
Has that caused Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing to change her tune? Not really, she even extends it into print in Wired.
The last straw in the rapidly crumbling pyramid of lies and distortions that have propelled this story forward is the little known DOD directive 8100.2, Use of Commercial Wireless Devices, Services, and Technologies in the Department of Defense (DoD) Global Information Grid (GIG).
For bloggers who are supposed to be super tech savvy savants, these folks (not picking on Xeni – plenty of other big name have weighed in) seem to be blissfully ignorant of A) the military, and B) IT management. The directive she links to is similar to unseen memos and policies of nearly every Fortune 500 company and government agency. The directive is about wireless communications device security – or more accurately – lack thereof.
There’s a reason big companies, government, and the military are scared shitless about wireless… It’s because once information hits the frequency spectrum it’s trivial for the modestly technically proficient with easily available tools to capture its. Stick a $59 wireless router on the network and you make battle plans, hostile takeover attempts, or financial data available for all to have a crack at. The DoD directive is a first attempt at define what the requirements will be for these type of devices if they are to connect to DoD systems.
How, exactly, is that a crackdown on cell phones with built-in cameras?
Little known, indeed, save for those of us who work on military installations. INFOSEC is having a migraine over camera phones.
I was also confused about why Xeni considerd this to be worth mentioning, esp considering the sad lack of wireless security has been a big issue ever since the tech was introduced. It’s not just the millitary and big companies, either, of course. How and when to safely implement wireless networking has been a serious topic at the medium-sized community college where I work for more than two years now. I’m sure that Xeni’s own employers have similar policies in place.