Syntech Group, a trusted provider of IT products and services to enterprises in the US, announces a partnership with Untethered Labs to distribute the GateKeeper Proximity Authentication platform to law enforcement agencies for automating password management and locking MDCs when unattended as required by the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) compliance policy.
Mobile data centers (MDCs) allow officers to access critical data and do their jobs more efficiently. But like all technology, MDCs also present new challenges for the command staff and police chiefs. For example, in 2019, a computer criminal was charged with unauthorized access of an officer’s MDC during a ride-along. When officers forget to lock their MDC as they leave their vehicle, any passersby can shoulder-surf what’s on the MDC’s unlocked screen. But officers being forced to retype complex passwords every few minutes can start to seriously impact their actual duties.
“There’s too much important data on law enforcement MDCs to leave at risk, so they must be protected – but that shouldn’t cause more stress and manual tasks for officers who are busy as it is,” says Katherine Wetherbee, Syntech Group CEO. “If you’re a police chief with hundreds of MDCs, short timeouts can potentially hinder productivity while long timeouts leave confidential data at risk. Syntech arms each officer with a GateKeeper token that will wirelessly act as an authenticator and automatically lock the MDC based on presence – not inaccurate inactivity.”
GateKeeper Proximity product lead and Untethered Labs CEO Dr. Sid Potbhare has worked with many law enforcement agencies and gained insight into the latest challenges officers face when complying with CJIS mandates such as strict timeout policies.
“Some police chiefs report that the required inactivity timeouts end up locking the officers out of their MDC while driving, forcing them to pull over just to retype their passwords. This short timeout policy becomes a hinderance to an officer’s workflow. We have also heard of times when officers placed someone into the back of their squad cars with the MDC accidentally left unlocked, leaving data vulnerable to unauthorized exposure. Now, GateKeeper locks MDCs automatically but only when the officer leaves the vehicle – not when a timeout policy kicks in.”
With certified technicians and genius engineers, Syntech structures managed services that conveniently fit the custom needs of each organization while taking the guesswork out of security. Using GateKeeper Proximity’s dynamic 2FA, Syntech is eliminating more guesswork for police chiefs, law enforcement, city managers, and IT teams across the United States. Join the Syntech crew for a webinar on how to enhance authentication for law enforcement MDCs.
Webinar: Tuesday, November 10, 2020 1:00 PM PDT – https://meetingsamer37.webex.com/meetingsamer37/j.php?MTID=m2a144539ff2316f80ba83d46e08c3566