SRI International Begins Final Development of Commercial Trusted Mobility Devices for U.S. Marine Corps

MENLO PARK, Calif., April 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- SRI International has begun the final phase of a one-year, $3.8 million contract with the U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command to develop and commercialize multiple-personality mobile devices. The goal of the Trusted Handheld program is to solve problems that arise when personal mobile devices are used for business purposes.

SRI is leading a research and development team that includes Galois Corporation, General Dynamics Broadband, and LG Electronics. The team is embedding domain isolation, encryption, policy, and related security technologies into smartphones for evaluations by carriers later this year.

The Trusted Handheld program was created by the U.S. Marine Corps to encourage development of commercially available multiple-personality mobile devices that meet corporate needs and could be used to access sensitive and classified information. As the business use of employee-owned smartphones and tablets proliferate, and as IT departments struggle to implement secure and cost-effective Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, the Marine Corps is helping the mobile device industry address isolation between personal and enterprise domains so that Government users will be able to leverage resultant commercial products.

To complete the project, SRI is leveraging more than 30 years of fundamental research on isolation technology, separation kernels, and multiple independent levels of security to develop a mobile device architecture that will work for the commercial marketplace while meeting the security needs of the Department of Defense and other Government departments.

"Our approach is to meet customer demands for a user-friendly mobile device that simultaneously ensures personal privacy and enterprise security," said Jeffrey Casper, program director, Engineering & Systems Group, SRI International. "This same commercial smartphone will support the military.  An Unclassified Domain can access secure records such as business e-mail, medical data, fitness reports, training apps, military avatars, and a Secret Domain can access data and applications related to operations."

The team successfully delivered 150 proof-of-concept dual-mode smartphones in September 2012 and a second 150 prototype dual-mode smartphones in February 2013. The team will deliver 150 advanced prototypes in June 2013 for the Department of Defense's certification and accreditation evaluations.

About SRI International

Innovations from SRI International have created new industries, billions of dollars of marketplace value, and lasting benefits to society—touching our lives every day. SRI, a nonprofit research and development institute based in Silicon Valley, brings its innovations to the marketplace through technology licensing, new products, and spin-off ventures. Government and business clients come to SRI for pioneering R&D and solutions in computing and communications, chemistry and materials, education, energy, health and pharmaceuticals, national defense, robotics, sensing, and more.

SOURCE SRI International