The U.S. government’s most IT-security sensitive organizations
are the Army and National Security Agency (NSA). The
Army and NSA decided to no longer reject mobile technologies
or BYOD. Instead these Department of Defense
(DoD) organizations looked for secure ways in which commercially
available smartphones can be used to access IT
systems. Performance and usability are also key concerns
particularly because encryption caused latency (delays).
Rather than build special handsets that are hardwired with
secure components, the DoD choose to install its software
on commercially available phones. This approach minimizes
costs and allows the government to stay up to date with the
latest phones on the market.