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US Army Calls Apple to Active Duty

US Army Calls Apple to Active Duty

by , 8:55 AM EST, December 21st, 2007

The U.S. Army is looking for ways to shore up its cyber defenses, so it is looking to Apple for some of its computer needs. The military is hoping that by adding Macs to its mix hackers will be less likely to break into critical systems, according to Forbes.

Lieutenant Colonel C.J. Wallington, a division chief in the Army Office of Enterprise Information Systems, claimed that the Macs and Xserves already online in the data center have been holding their own and are fending off attacks. "Those are some of the most attacked computers there are. But the attacks used against them are designed for Windows-based machines, so they shrug them off," he said.

So far, only about 20,000 of the Army's 700,000 computers are Macs, but that number is growing. About 1,000 new Macs are added during each bi-annual hardware buying phase.

The push to start using Macs in the Army began in 2005 when the Army's chief information officer, General Steve Boutelle, called for diversity in the organization's computer vendor options.

Apple will likely see an even stronger presence in the military once its computers are compatible with the security card system the Army relies on. Thursby Software is already working on that, and should have Common Access Cards system-compatible software for the Mac available soon.

Observer Comments

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Close Name:Sir Harry Flashman Posts: 792 Joined: 08 Feb 2007
Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:37 am Subject: I can hear it now

Macs marching while singing "You had a good homepage, but you bit, your byte, sound off one, two...three, four"


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Close Name:geoduck Posts: 1922 Joined: 30 Dec 2003
Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:06 pm Subject:

LOL
Does anyone have a picture of a Macbook done in Camo?


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Close Name:Sir Harry Flashman Posts: 792 Joined: 08 Feb 2007
Fri Dec 21, 2007 2:01 pm Subject: Mac recruiting posters

Quote
geoduck wrote:
LOL
Does anyone have a picture of a Macbook done in Camo?


Sorry about the poor quality. I don't have much time to work on these, the wife is fixing to take me out shopping again in a bit.

Mac recruiting posters


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Close Name:Tik Tok Posts: 21 Joined: 05 Oct 2005
Fri Dec 21, 2007 10:24 pm Subject: Military Macs

One would expect the Flashman to be the first to develop military themes for the Mac, given his lengthy history at war. Very nice work, sir.

I note, with some sadness, that, at the rate the military is buying Macs, (1000 per year), it will only take about 700 years for Apple to catch up to the 700,000 computers on hand.

Moreover, once the hackers find that Macs are sitting in the Defense Dept. in critical areas, they will mount more specific attacks. It is not news that attacks on Windows have not been successful against OS X or OS 9.


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Close Name:Sir Harry Flashman Posts: 792 Joined: 08 Feb 2007
Sat Dec 22, 2007 12:45 am Subject: Re: Military Macs

Quote
Tik Tok wrote:
One would expect the Flashman to be the first to develop military themes for the Mac, given his lengthy history at war. Very nice work, sir.


Thank you! As you know I was a contemporary of Charles Babbage. In fact he was the one who introduced me to Ada Lovelace and her and I... well even such a notorious womanizer as I should keep those things secret.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun PhotoShopping those recruiting posters and am currently messing around doing some Mac server movie posters and book covers. Get back to you all later when I have them on a web page. And I do mean you all, almost a 1000 hits on that page of recruiting posters and only one comment. Maybe I should take this opportunity to learn how to use the blog feature of iWeb.


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Close Name:Sir Harry Flashman Posts: 792 Joined: 08 Feb 2007
Sat Dec 22, 2007 2:30 am Subject: A few more graphics

Quote
Tik Tok wrote:


I note, with some sadness, that, at the rate the military is buying Macs, (1000 per year), it will only take about 700 years for Apple to catch up to the 700,000 computers on hand.


When I was on the 3rd Fleet Staff (SURFPAC) I was one of the few Apple users in the headquarters, it was my own Apple IIc. One of the engineering officers also had a personally owned Lisa that he swore by and there was a Navy owned 512k Mac in his department that wasn't used much. This was in the late 1980s and there wasn't too many PCs around, much less Macs, but no doubt about it was PCs that the IT guys wanted us to use. It was a real fight to keep using my Apple IIc and the IT geeks were glad when I finally retired from the Navy.

Anyway I ginned up some more stuff and added them to the web page I created before using iWeb, scroll down the page and look for Kirk Douglas. These are a made using posters from movies that I like and one a book cover spoof on Lawrence of Arabia's biography.

Enjoy and have a great weekend and great Holiday season.


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Close Name:xmattingly Posts: 266 Joined: 31 Jul 2007
Sat Dec 22, 2007 5:42 pm Subject: Re: Military Macs

Quote
Sir Harry Flashman wrote:
Anyway, I had a lot of fun PhotoShopping those recruiting posters and am currently messing around doing some Mac server movie posters and book covers.
Dude, I don't know where you got all those images, but those posters kick ass.


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Close Name:Sir Harry Flashman Posts: 792 Joined: 08 Feb 2007
Sat Dec 22, 2007 7:20 pm Subject: Re: Military Macs

Quote
xmattingly wrote:
Dude, I don't know where you got all those images, but those posters kick ass.


Thanks for the compliment.

You can get those things at number of places. The branches of the military, USA or otherwise, have historical web sites, many of the individual regiments, squadrons and other organizations have their own as well.


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Close Name:geoduck Posts: 1922 Joined: 30 Dec 2003
Mon Dec 24, 2007 10:07 am Subject:

Quote
Sir Harry Flashman wrote:
Anyway I ginned up some more stuff and added them to the web page I created before

these are so cool. thanks.


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Close Name:Guest
Wed Dec 26, 2007 3:26 pm Subject: Military iWeb 2.0 themes

Geoduck,
How did you create the Military looking theme? I am looking to download or buy an iWeb 2.0 Military theme that I can post pictures to from my friend serving in Iraq. Any help would be appreciated.

Tim (stim.hicks@mac.com)


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Close Name:geoduck Posts: 1922 Joined: 30 Dec 2003
Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:14 pm Subject: Re: Military iWeb 2.0 themes

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
Geoduck,
How did you create the Military looking theme? I am looking to download or buy an iWeb 2.0 Military theme that I can post pictures to from my friend serving in Iraq. Any help would be appreciated.

Tim (stim.hicks@mac.com)

Thanks for the feedback but Sir Harry Flashman made the page. I agree it looks really nice


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