[MTK]

From the article:

This summer, in a move that surely caused a few collective head shakes across the NFL, Broncos linebacker D.J. Williams tweeted a photo of his iPad that displayed several of the team’s defensive plays from the digital playbook.

Really, it had nothing to do with the iPad itself since Williams could have just as easily snapped a photo and tweeted the picture from a hard-copy playbook. But the incident was nonetheless the type of issue that creates hesitation for any old-school coach having a difficult time embracing this new-school world.

Is it totally rational? No. Is it slightly nearsighted? Yes. But this is new technology, so it is reasonable to wonder about all of those security-type questions. Most everyone who is currently using them, however, says there’s nothing to fear.

“What if a player gets traded?” Brown said. “What if an iPad gets left on a plane? What if someone hacks into the playbook? I understand the question But there’s plenty of security in place.”

In fact, as several people explained, the iPad might actually be more secure than a hard-copy playbook, particularly those issued by teams like the Broncos. Information can be wiped from an iPad from anywhere, which means a waived player could have his playbook erased before he ever even reaches the coach’s office to get the bad news.

“The big difference and benefit we have now is, there’s no security on a personal iPad,” Boxer said. “Now, we have a COBOLT Device Management system so we can secure what’s out there on the devices. It’s all highly secure. We can wipe an iPad from anywhere in the world, and it now has two passwords on it. It has a four-digit keycode and password required to access the actual app.”

As for the prospect of hacking? The encryption currently being used to secure the iPads on a remote level is equivalent to the military grade. So while the idea of SpyGate II might be something nobody will want to discount, it hasn’t created enough concern to steer most teams away from the technology at this point. Not considering the security currently being utilized.