The National Institute of Standards and Technology today published a draft report to explore ways to ensure the cybersecurity of the smartphones, tablets, and wearables that public safety officials are increasingly using on the job.

“Public safety practitioners utilizing the forthcoming nationwide public safety broadband network (NPSBN) will have smartphones, tablets, and wearables at their disposal.  Although these devices should enable first responders to complete their missions, any influx of new technologies will introduce new security vulnerabilities,” NIST said.

“The overarching goal of this work is to identify security objectives for public safety mobile and wearable devices, enabling jurisdictions to more easily select and purchase secure devices and device manufacturers to design and develop them,” NIST added.

The report noted that public safety workers often use and transmit more sensitive information, such as medical data, than the typical commercial user.  NIST set a Jan. 7, 2019, deadline for comments on the draft report. — Tom Leithauser, tom.leithauser@wolterskluwer.com

Courtesy TRDaily