TSA Plans on Spending $3 Million on iDevices in Pilot Program

[Icy]

The TSA, also known as the United States Transportation Security Administration, plans on spending $3,000,000 on hardware from Apple Inc. The budget includes over 1,000 iMacs and 1,000 mobile devices to be purchased over the next three years. Usually, the U.S government, specifically the Federal Acquisition Regulation sanctions government organizations from purchasing from one specific company, but the TSA has argued, stating that only Apple’s products fit it’s requirements for the program. TSA has since filed for class justification for approval. Not surprisingly, TSA has developed it’s public iPhone application, which provides travelers with the weather, security wait times, flight delay times, and other tools. Since launching it’s iPhone app, TSA has also developed and Android version for the app, which can be found in the Android market. After calculating all the expenditures, this sure is one pricey apple rumors to hit the summer 2012.



Source: Apple Product Reviews

[Sip]

Re: TSA Plans on Spending $3 Million on iDevices in Pilot Program

lol ... $3,000,000 for 1000 iMacs and 1000 mobile devices? That averages out to $1500 per device!!!! If they went with ChromeBooks and Android they could probably cut that budget in 1/3 and probably get better hardware too.

[KarotheGreat]

Re: TSA Plans on Spending $3 Million on iDevices in Pilot Program

lol ... $3,000,000 for 1000 iMacs and 1000 mobile devices? That averages out to $1500 per device!!!! If they went with ChromeBooks and Android they could probably cut that budget in 1/3 and probably get better hardware too.

Doesn't Apple also have one of the worst securities around?

[bell-the-cat]

Re: TSA Plans on Spending $3 Million on iDevices in Pilot Program



Can I bring my [................] through the security checkpoint? One could have some fun asking questions with that.

[Sip]

Re: TSA Plans on Spending $3 Million on iDevices in Pilot Program

Doesn't Apple also have one of the worst securities around?

Up till recently their approach seems to have been security through obscurity (since no one was using their stuff). Now that everyone and their mother has some sort of Apple product, it is turning out they are really not that different than anything else. In order to be secure you have to be very vigilant, up to date, and ready to jump on and be proactive to detect, identify, and fix problems.

But realistically, I don't know how equipped they are to handle really serious backend and corporate level security on their consumer devices though. I don't know if I'd be willing to bet national security on their stuff without some really rigorous security audits.

Safari though seems to be the fastest to fall whenever there is hacking (ala pwn to own) type of contest.