Wikitip

Mobile platforms bring unique security challenges

IT must step up to the security issues of mobile computing. Laptops and high-end smartphones in particular are a major target for theft, and while most thieves are just after the device, which they wipe clean and fence, some may be sophisticated enough to realize that the information on them, and the access to corporate information through them, is often much more valuable to competitors than the phone itself. Wherever possible users should be discouraged from saving sensitive information on laptop hard drives and required instead to access that information only through secure network connections. Good password practices, including changing passwords periodically, should be enforced. Every mobile employee should have an electronic wallet on his device where he can store all his passwords under strong encryption, giving him only one password that he needs to remember and eliminating the common practice of jotting passwords down on a slip of paper kept in the wallet or of using obvious passwords such as a child's birth date. And devices themselves should be equipped with a strong, password-activated locking system that encrypts all sensitive data. Really sensitive data should be double encrypted – once in the application and a second time by the device locking system. Of course none of this is perfect, but if it becomes more expensive to crack the codes than the information is worth, then the information on the device, if not the device itself, can be deemed reasonably secure.

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Featured Case Study

Safeguarding Enterprise Voice Communication over WiFi

Enterprises are showing a strong interest on wireless voice technology over the standard WiFi networks for its attractive features such as lower phone bills, centralized management, or fast deployments. However these wireless voice networks are susceptible to usual attacks like viruses, spam, phishing, hacking, stolen data, denial of service (DoS), voice injections, man in the middle attacks, call hijacking, eavesdropping etc. The security of these networks become a major concern for enterprises because IT managers have no or very little knowledge how to protect voice networks.

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Featured How-To Note

Architecting Wireless Email

Wireless email is an important business tool for today's enterprises and an entrepreneurial solution to maximize the employees’ business potential and gain a competitive edge. Since businesses now send as much as 60% of their business-critical data via email, accessing emails wirelessly means business success for many organizations by providing rapid customer communication, faster decision-making and collaboration from distant places.

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