Police agency secures handhelds

10,000 police officers will use handheld computers

Police forces are insisting that the 10,000 mobile data devices to be rolled out to officers on the beat will be secure.

The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) ­ which coordinates technology procurement for police forces ­ says no information will be held on the handheld computers.

“Devices are password protected, can be switched off remotely and information is wiped from the device when the officer logs off,” said a spokesman.

The security standards are in accordance with guidance set by the government’s Communications Electronics Security Group.

Devices will give officers access to key services such as the police national computer and command control systems.

The NPIA has taken a technology-agnostic approach to which networks the devices will run on, prompting some concern from security experts. Some forces will use Airwave ­- the police radio network ­- while others will opt to use commercial networks.

The NPIA said that because traffic is encrypted, the network used is irrelevant.
The most important issue for police will be password management, according to Richard Clayton, security expert at Cambridge University.

“It is often the case when rolling out large numbers of end user devices such as this that users lose them and don’t have strong enough passwords ­ training will be crucial,” he said.

Police forces hope the devices will improve the efficiency of policing by cutting red tape and improving access to information.