Dear Vice President Elect Pence,
I was greatly encouraged to read the administration’s statement to Reuters Friday on combating cyber-attacks. As a retired USAF intelligence officer and former HQ/EUCOM member, I was alarmed when I read EUCOM’s Lt/Gen Ben Hodges AFN interview in Poland during the NATO Operation Anaconda field exercise in June. In it he stated: “Neither (unclassified) radio communications nor email are secure” and “I assume everything I write on my BlackBerry is being monitored.” I believe he’s absolutely right! This COMSEC problem can become an OPSEC one with dire consequences in the near future by helping enable enemy targeteers to put munitions on American targets and troops, as I did to our country’s enemies as an Air Force targets intelligence officer.
As you are aware, our military is switching from Androids to the Chinese made I-phone 6. In July, (relationship withheld) and fellow unit members deployed to the Middle East in support of operations against IS with their personal mobile devices. These and issue I-phones have inadequate protection against cyber-attack and exploitation by hostile intelligence services, exposing them to be found, targeted and killed, preventing mission success.
This winter I became concerned about protecting my personal information and financial information from hackers. I found out that the anti-virus programs out there fail to protect against the zero day attacks that key-loggers and click-jackers use. I wanted multi-layered defense and anti-screen capture capabilities. I read that “Silicon Review” recognizes Strike Force Technologies as the world’s leading provider of patented, military grade keystroke encryption, out of band authentication and 2 factor authentication. I purchased via Amazon and installed their Mobile Trust product on my mobile device. I also encouraged family and friends to do likewise.
Mobile Trust is now being sold in brick and mortar stores nationwide. It was easy to install, costs $30 a year for two I-phones, does not slow things down or cause any other problems. I did this only after Strike Force Technologies settled with Microsoft over patent infringement in Jan. 2016. In full disclosure I was so impressed with Mobile Trust that I bought SFOR stock. Please consider getting our troops something to fix this tremendous COMSEC problem. I don’t even care if it’s Mobile Trust! They just need something better than the standard consumer encryption Apple provides its I-Phone 6. It is nowhere near the level of protection they need!
The outgoing POTUS forwarded my letter to him to the DOD/CIO office for action. However, no defensive software was provided our troops due to the Congressional budget impasse. With the recent passage of the 2017 DOD Appropriations Act, funds are finally available to do this. When you become Vice President, please help! If I can be of any further service to you or our country in this matter please don’t hesitate to e-mail, call or mail me at (personal contact info withheld)
I am still your officer,
4 Sleddogs
Major USAF Retired
