The equipment entity under the Australian Defence Force is building a secure mobile communications system supporting tablets and smartphones, according to a request for information (RFI) published 21 August.
The Land Systems Division of the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO), which develops fighter planes, satellites, tents and more for Defence, said it’s building the secure communications system for Special Operations Command (SOCOMD) users to access support system applications and services.
“The system seeks to use advances in mobile device capabilities; and encryption techniques and protocols to provide SOCOMD users with a commercial style smartphone and tablet which will provide secure voice and data up to SECRET level,” said the RFI documents.
“The proposal seeks to avoid system risk and lifecycle by utilising application and device software hardening, supported by advanced encryption methods, to enable a hardware device agnostic approach.”
The RFI is open from 21 August to 25 November. “Participants should have a track record in the development of mobile device encryption, complex wide area networks and their management systems including cyber security management,” the DMO said. Participants must be members of the Defence Industry Security Program and have accreditation to handle and store restricted security information.
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