When disaster strikes, land-based radios become critical infrastructure.
Michael Fowler is a security professional and R&D project manager with Harris Corp.
For decades, utilities and other agencies have grown accustomed to using land mobile radio (LMR) systems and traditional analog technologies. Unfortunately, as with everything else in our society during the Information Age, and our growing dependence on information technology, the LMR systems that the utility industry—and therefore society—depend on have become just as vulnerable as our home computer systems.
The role LMR plays in maintaining public utilities and aiding recovery from disaster—natural or man-made—is vital. However, these same systems can also be the deliberate target of malicious entities that seek to worsen disaster and delay regrouping and rebuilding efforts for as long as possible. As a result, protecting LMR systems has become as important as securing other types of critical utility infrastructure.