Dating Apps, Yacht Research Found on Pentagon Phones Despite Ban
Defense Department employees are downloading mobile applications to their work telephones that pose “operational and cybersecurity risks,” the department's inspector general said in a report that stemmed from concern about the Chinese-owned video service TikTok and other messaging apps.
Employees are conducting official business on their work devices “using mobile applications in violation of Federal and DoD electronic messaging and records retention policies,” the inspector general's management advisory said.
The activities ranged from online dating to games, cryptocurrency reviews and scouting for luxury yachts, according to the “management advisory” released Thursday.
Pentagon agencies “lacked controls over personal use of DoD mobile devices to ensure that personal use was limited, complied with DoD policies and regulations, and did not pose operational and cybersecurity threats to the DoD,” the watchdog agency said.
The report said the Defense Department provides off-the-shelf mobile phones and cell service to “select” department personnel to conduct official business but doesn't say how many employees qualify.
The unauthorized applications “included photo and video editing, telehealth, weather, maps, and fitness applications,” the inspector general said. It said some of the apps pose cybersecurity risks or have “potentially inappropriate content.”
The report was the result of an investigation that stemmed from questions by Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin last year about texts that may have been deleted by departing Trump administration defense officials concerning the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
“Today's report raises more questions than it answers,” Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said in a statement
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