Trials of wireless, secure electronic mail

The US Department of Defense (DOD) is a large user of both e-mail and security services. The introduction of commercial wireless communications and networks, and the recognition by industry of the need for security has provided the opportunity for development and trials of a wireless, secure e-mail service. The Center for Systems Engineering at the Defense Information Systems Agency has developed this capability and conducted trials with a small community of DOD users who have requirements for mobility in the workplace. These trials have introduced DOD approved security into commercial wireless data networks, and have inserted advanced technology into the hands of DOD users. The objective of these trials was to validate the system design, evaluate performance and utilization, and obtain user feedback. To realize a broad-based trial, the authors selected multiple wireless services, e-mail packages, security packages, and mobile computers, which were integrated in various combinations to meet user needs and allow a thorough trial. Both packet radio (RAM and ARDIS) and cellular digital packet data (CDPD) services were employed for the wireless connection of the mobile unit to a mail server on the user´s local area network (LAN). Two commercial e-mail packages (LOTUS CC:Mail and Microsoft Mail) were integrated with the wireless service and with the security packages. Two security packages were used, one based on commercial software (SecretAgent) and the other based on a PCMCIA card (FORTEZZA) developed by the National Security Agency