The Defense Department, concerned that hackers or spies might eavesdrop on classified meetings or secretly track the locations of top U.S. officials, is imposing new limits on its workers' use of the latest generation of wireless devices inside military buildings. . .
The Defense Department, concerned that hackers or spies might eavesdrop on classified meetings or secretly track the locations of top U.S. officials, is imposing new limits on its workers' use of the latest generation of wireless devices inside military buildings.

The new rules will outline new restrictions on civilian and military employees carrying cellular telephones, pagers and handheld computers while working, even devices that employees bought themselves and carry for their personal convenience at work, said John P. Stenbit, the assistant defense secretary for command, control, communications and intelligence.

Stenbit, who also is the Pentagon's chief information officer, disclosed the upcoming rules Tuesday after a technology conference in Washington focusing on security problems of wireless devices. Stenbit said the new rules would be announced within a month.

In an earlier speech at the same conference, President Bush's top cyber-security adviser, Richard Clarke, said the technology industry was acting irresponsibly by selling wireless tools such as computer network devices that remain remarkably easy for hackers to attack.

The industry's most common data-scrambling technique designed to keep out eavesdroppers, called the wireless encryption protocol, can be broken - usually in less than five minutes - with software available on the Internet.

"It is irresponsible to sell a product in a way that can be so easily misused by a customer in a way that jeopardizes their confidential and proprietary and sensitive information," Clarke said.

Clarke said government and companies need to explain to consumers ways to keep their information secure over wireless networks. Some recommendations will be included in a forthcoming report from the administration on cyber-security, which currently runs more than 2,800 pages.

Stenbit said the new rules would explain which equipment, such as handheld Blackberry e-mail devices, may be used in different areas of military buildings, including the Pentagon. Stenbit has complained to colleagues about classified meetings being interrupted when electronic bug-sweepers in specially designed conference rooms detect the presence of cell phones and handheld computers.