“At the Australian Computer Society (ACS) Canberra Branch conference this morning, Yannopoilos said ‘bad guys’ in the war-torn country were making better use of available data by ‘using iPhones and applications — and multiple SIM cards — and going much faster than we are,’ despite the fact that Defence had more intelligence at its fingertips,” Grubb reports.
“‘Defence is one almighty information collection machine. It generates more info than I’ve ever seen,’ he said. However, Defence’s information was stuck between ‘silos’ of data, with most of it going unused unless someone happened to be looking at it carefully, he said. In the future, Defence hopes to have data that is not separated into application silos so that it can be used by other applications when required,” Grubb reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “James W. and “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
who woulda thunk?
But Coalition forces are using Windows XP. Hmmmmmm.
Those damn Taliban are savvy! I wonder what their ipad preorder numbers are?!? We know they won’t be buyin’ wifi enabled.
The real question is, for sharing of terror plots, are they the mobile me types or drop box type?
Oh the life of a talibanman!
Give the Aussies iPhones AND iPads.
With the whole US Gov. including DOD and the Intel Community “standardized” on Windows what do you expect.
Every Gov. CIO & CTO should be fired!
I should know, I work in the IC and fight the “Mac” battle daily with these A-Holes!
Wow. Can’t believe the world famous Australian military is getting beat. Do they still wear those hats like they did in Breaker Morant?
This needs repeating…
With the whole US Gov. including DOD and the Intel Community “standardized” on Windows what do you expect.
Every Gov. CIO & CTO should be fired!
I should know, I work in the IC and fight the “Mac” battle daily with these A-Holes!
I repeat:
This needs repeating…
With the whole US Gov. including DOD and the Intel Community “standardized” on Windows what do you expect.
Every Gov. CIO & CTO should be fired!
I should know, I work in the IC and fight the “Mac” battle daily with these A-Holes!
“Hey Mr. Taliban, Carry me bananas.” Deo! de Deo-o-o. And all that lib crapola.
ron:
You’re full of shit.
You’re quick to condemn based on your political beliefs.
You have zero credibility because you are a one way sledgehammer.
Figure it out or continue to be a buffoon.
Thanks for that farewell serenade, rom.
I find it utterly amazing that the Taliban can get cellular reception in the Afghan mountains while AT&T;users constanly complain about poor reception in major US cities.
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Be mindful of the oxymoron “military intelligence.”
“You’re quick to condemn based on your political beliefs.”
Exactly Mr. Ampar. We’re all condemned in the USA right now. To A degradation of our way of life. Roll on 2012.
Ampar, it takes no significant “political” belief to argue that those who decided to standardize on Windows should be fired. Wholesale. And not just at the “C” level, either. They stayed in their comfort zone and condemned us to a great deal of vulnerability. Now they should find their DIScomfort zone – in the unemployment line.
I believe our soldiers should be using the best tools for the task, and I don’t believe MS provides those. This is not a “political” belief, nor a “religious” one. It is mere practicality. The strange thing is, the Taliban were supposed to be a bunch of Luddites! How come it’s the DoD that’s the Luddites?
Be respectful in the future Mr. Ampar. I won’t lower myself to curse at you. God bless.
I predict that Sarah Palin will soon declare that “those iPhone users in the US are pallin’ around with terrorists”.
And Tea Party members will burn iPhones in effigy. They really are that stupid.
Great…thanks for taking this non-political issue down the drain, Ampar.
“With the whole US Gov. including DOD and the Intel Community “standardized” on Windows what do you expect.
Every Gov. CIO & CTO should be fired!
I should know, I work in the IT and fight the “Mac” battle daily with these A-Holes!”
If the headline wasn’t a big enough clue for you super geniuses, check out the spelling of “Defence”.
Shows how dumbass Hussein is. Worst president ever … even than that moron Carter. Listen, Hussein, you idiot, get out troops some iPhones … or are you too eat up with the dumbass to get it.
@x
Yeah, because W. did such a great job of moving our technology forward for the 8 years he was there. Barack should have changed everything in a year. 😐
Farlo,
It wasn’t Ampar who took it political; it was Ron (…”Deo! de Deo-o-o. And all that lib crapola.“). And he very quickly thereafter elaborated, which have x guy above an excuse to go full throttle.
It’s so funny how the absolute worst thing our x friend here can think of is the middle name… So funny how often it gets mentioned here by the right-leaning participants (obviously, unable to come up with anything more substantive and meaningful, you use the best you have…).
I stand corrected. I missed the “lib” in ron’s post. My apologies, Ampar.
ron, why? I mean really? There are too many political stories here as it is. Go bait the politicos on another thread.
A small group with minimal infrastructure is always more flexible than a much larger one. The real failure is to dictate terms and assume the initative- making the enemy react. A phone is potentially also a homing beacon and a listening device so letting them have phone is not a bad idea. We just need to get an app on their iphone along the lines of ‘smart bomb target’. Perhaps we need to ask the israelis about this since they have used phone to kill bad guys.
All you fools bringing Obama into this . . . it’s AUSTRALIA!!!
I’m no fan of our President, but sheesh, the article has NOTHING to do with American forces!
Man oh man, is THIS the level of discourse to which we can look forward to in America going forward, kicked off by an article that’s NOT EVEN ABOUT AMERICA?!?!?
Ah, yes there is this amazing new (1970s) technology called something like “database”. When implemented properly it accomplishes an end to silos and achieves a curious state of
“data sharing”. It is sad that so many organizations lack the leadership and vision to properly use databases.
email steve, he will have their iPhones bricked.
@ Proud Puppy: bricks thrown at soldiers hurt… just ask the IDF.
The Taliban is calling their secret weapon the “iPhone-is-king”… it’s kind of like the Australian “Boomerang”, where the Taliban just ‘throw’ it out there to their forces and BOOM – success on the field!
Even if the Aussies ARE Luddites, the Agency I work for is finally investigating how to centrally manage the macs we do use, which will put Macs on the approved list for the first time.
Our CIO has a big 27 inch iMac ion her desk, and owns two at home.
FDA is entering the 21st century! I’ve fought this battle there for over twenty years, and like Bob Hope, I’ve outlasted the Luddites!
I win!!!
Governments are obsolete. They need to go and die along with Windows.
The rebels will win.
@1999:
You’re the ignorant here. “Defence” is the absolutely correct British/Austalian spelling of the word. You’ll go really crazy when I mention “tyre” is “tire” and “kerb” is “curb”.
Hmmmm.
Isn’t there a previous article about the U.S. Army coming to Apple to discuss “hand-held solutions for soldiers?
And wasn’t there another article about the Army using Macs for security reasons?
Couldn’t we find these people using their GPS, or Find My iPhone?
Obviously, however, I can’t spell.
Although the British introduced the machine gun to warfare in the late nineteenth century, at the dawn of WWI, they had come to ignore it. The Germans, for their part, saw the potential and acquired a large number of the guns and deployed teams of trained machine gunners. Historians say if there had been a balance of those weapons, the Germans would not have driven into France and the war would have been short. Let’s take a lessons from that.
Hello:-)
Follow what workks … get the iPhone to the good guys!!! Monitor them Talibanis and get them but save the their iPhone(s). Do not blow it up to bits.
FWIW, I have a nephew in Australian military intelligence in computer systems development who worships the Mac and detests Windows. The article may even reflect some of his agitating for Apple.
someone who asked: the trad slouch hat of Breaker Morant fame is still worn on parade. The new ones are of appropriate camouflage coloring.
If it is really true that the Taliban are using iPhones then several things are true.
We should be able, through call records, to track known Taliban members, to specific locations (unless they turn the GPS)…or go to the organization paying the bill and take them down, or as previously mentioned brick the phones remotely.
It begs the question…how do we KNOW that the Taliban are using iphones specifically? Captures? Accidental leave behinds in caves?
Call intercepts? Billing records?
The thing about technology at this level is that it can be used against them too.
defence?
@Proud Puppy
“email steve, he will have their iPhones bricked.”
No! Make their phones explode and ban them from the itunes store.
Why does every article turn into Microsoft bashing? Stand on the merits of apple product and quit reducing your influence and creditability by turning off potential new apple users.
I wish this was more of a news and discussion site than what it has become. Strictly a fanboy site that rarely has anything constructive to add. But it does fit since the comments by mdn are usually of the same tone.
Oh well.
Actually the U.S. Army is not entirely Windows based. They switched to Mac/Webstar web servers in the late 90’s after their ‘Be all you can be’ website was hacked for the upteenth time. I wasn’t surprised to hear they had contacted Apple.
Defense – colour – organisation – Honour – And on and on. This is a world wide web. www, get it?
Yes, ron. We got it and get it ad nauseam. DO YOU GET IT?
You’re Glum from the cartoon world.
I’m sick of your pessimistic mantra.
Are you that fscking stupid?
God bless & help you Ampar. I’ll say a prayer for you.
@macdoc
Where can I join up?
douche
The problems are those found in fighting any guerilla force. You can’t tell the guerillas from the rest of the population, but your guys all dress alike, with big targets on themselves and their equipment. The guerilla force is more agile, not needing the long chain of command to make the decisions to strike.
No matter how much technology you have, if you go through six or eight layers of command structure to get access to the available information, it will take time. Think of how much information about the 9/11 plot was known beforehand, but not made into the completed picture needed to understand what was going on until after the fact.
The base problem is we are treating a criminal act like a war and trying to apply the Geneva Convention rules to the pursuit of a bunch of thugs. This is not a war. Just like the War on Drugs is not a war. There is no nation to defeat. There is no national leader to bring to the deck of an aircraft carrier and sign a surrender document. It’s a bunch of Saudi Arabian dissidents fighting us, because to fight their own government would get them killed without a blink.
@jaundices – tell 1999 about “bonnets” that should be good for a laugh.
all you politicos secretly enjoy the rancor