Money shows DMS support

The Defense Department's chief information officer has issued a message of support for the armed services' beleaguered message system.

In a Feb. 8 message to commanders in chief, Art Money affirmed the military's plan to drop its legacy Autodin message system for the Defense Message System by Sept. 30, 2003, said Rear Adm. Robert Nutwell, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and space.

In his message, Money relaxed the requirements DOD services must meet to be considered fully operational on DMS, Nutwell said. Under the new definition, if an organization is sending and receiving all classified messages on DMS, then it's "fully operational," he said.

Money has set a June 30 deadline for DOD organizations to abandon Autodin for nontactical messaging, Nutwell said. This deadline comes after no DOD organizations made the previous two deadlines: Dec. 31, 1999, and Sept. 30, 2000.

Money's message also said that organizations may still use Autodin mailing lists and wean themselves off them over time, a practice not permitted before.

Meanwhile, users of the Defense Message System may access their e-mail using a secure wireless connection, thanks to a partnership announced recently.

Kasten Chase Applied Research Ltd. and Research In Motion Ltd. have created an integrated solution to meet government standards for remote access to DMS. Kasten Chase will integrate its RASP data security solutions for wireless applications and message handling with RIM's BlackBerry wireless e-mail solution to provide secure access to DMS.

Dan Caterinicchia contributed to this article.