During a Baltimore conference last summer of 1,000 Homeland Security Department workers, Robert West, the agency's chief information security officer, made the rounds at an after-hours social event. There he met a federal air marshal eager to show him what was running on his wireless personal digital assistant.

"This is how they send me orders; this is how they tell me what airplane to get on," the marshal told West, illustrating how wireless communications let air marshals respond quickly to changing plans and last minute threats.

By Brad Grimes at Washington Technology.

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