Remote working during the Olympics: any new security risks?

What enterprises need to consider as large numbers of staff prepare to work away from the office.

Video post based on my interview* with Stuart Sumner of Computing – Part 1.

A large proportion of staff are set to work remotely this summer as the Olympic Games disrupt the UK’s transport networks. In a recent video interview, Stuart Sumner of Computing asked me whether remote working during the Olympics will create any new security risk for UK firms. My answer is I don’t think so.

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What’s in a Jelly Bean: is Android 4.1 going to help with BYOD?

Google recently announced Android 4.1 ‘Jelly Bean’ at its I/O conference in San Francisco. The latest flavor of the world’s #1 mobile OS promises better user experience and sexier UI. But does it really make any easier for IT to secure and manage those personal devices used for work?

Generally speaking, 4.1 is an incremental release that takes Android one step closer to Apple iOS, which has been in the market for 5 years now. From a corporate IT perspective, nothing is dramatically different or better.

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BYOD – Bring Your Own Device

Where employees once enquired about private medical cover and company cars, now they may ask to work on their own iPhone or Android. It’s a perk of the job that can boost productivity, but implement your BYOD policy incorrectly (or even pretend it’s not happening) and it could cost you dear, say our experts

Post based on my interview* with Richard Dunnett of Director Magazine

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The Battle of the Titans: What it all means for IT managers caught in the middle

“Adapt, accept and manage: a BYOD mantra for corporate IT”

ANY CHARACTER HERE

RIM and Apple: two firms with more contrasting current fortunes you could not wish to imagine. The once high-flying Canadian BlackBerry-maker, for so long the darling of IT managers and beloved of time-starved execs the world over, has lost its way as rivals from the consumer space start to eat into its core enterprise business. Then there’s the phenomenon that is Apple, the Cupertino giant molded into the slick, stylish consumer success story it is today by the late Steve Jobs. You’re probably as likely in many organizations to see staff using an iPhone for work as a BlackBerry today, which makes two recent announcements from the tech giants all the more interesting for what they say about the firms’ respective strategies and what it all means for IT managers caught in the middle. Read more of this post

Jailbreaking BYOD Control. Is Apple ready for enterprise primetime?

Mobile World Congress 2012

Mobile World Congress 2012

Consumerization is happening now, but many IT departments simply aren’t prepared to deal with the new challenges and complexities it entails. With IT managers increasingly urged by CEOs to stop saying ‘no’ and start supporting consumer tools, they need to reappraise their traditional approach. Put simply, IT needs flexible standards – they can’t say no but neither can they say yes to everyone.

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Mobile Security: iOS Jailbreaks Pose Risks

*** UPDATE 9/1/2015: KeyRaider Compromises 225K (jailbroken) Apple Logins ***

http://researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/2015/08/keyraider-ios-malware-steals-over-225000-apple-accounts-to-create-free-app-utopia/

 

Mobile Security: iOS Jailbreaks Pose RisksJailbreaking is happening in the millions: don’t turn a blind eye.



The latest jailbreak for iOS 6.1, released on 4 February, was downloaded by a whopping 5 million users in the first 48 hours alone, according to the website stats posted by Cyril (a.k.a. pod2g), the developer of the latest hack published on evasi0n.com. During these first two days, the websites served 40 million page views of which a good 50 per cent to 2.5 million unique visitors from the U.S.

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Mobility Management and Security. A Customer Panel. Part Two.

Learn from a panel of industry peers the solutions and the best practices that have turned consumer mobile technology into a competitive advantage for their companies.

This is Part Two of the post based on the panel that I moderated at the IDC mobileNext Forum 2011 in San Francisco. Click here for Part One.

Eric Erickson
VP Information Systems
Liberty First Credit Union

Bill Troyak
Team Leader End User Devices
Navistar

Jeff Jackson
Partner
Acumen Technologies

Going back to the three step approach to consumerization, the last step is to deploy new security and management tools to enable these new models. It’s not just about new platforms. Traditional System Management tools don’t really cut anymore. Id love to know more about your experience and your learning with regard to the necessary new infrastructure.

Eric:  Well, being a financial institution, it’s critical for us to make sure our data is secure.

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Mobility Management and Security. A Customer Panel.

Learn from a panel of industry peers the solutions and the best practices that have turned consumer mobile technology into a competitive advantage for their companies.

This post is based on the recording of the panel that I moderated at the IDC mobileNext Forum in December 2011 in San Francisco.

Eric Erickson
VP Information Systems
Liberty First Credit Union

Bill Troyak
Team Leader End User Devices
Navistar

Jeff Jackson
Partner
Acumen Technologies

I’d like to start by asking the panelists to briefly introduce themselves and the size and scope of their BYOD programs.

Eric: My name is Eric Erickson. I have been at Liberty First Credit Union for seven years as the VP of Information Systems and in the technology field for almost 25 years, 17 of those years with financial institutions. Our mission is to provide security for our members and provide our staff with the tools that they need to be able to work with the members to be able to get their accounts opened in a timely fashion or to get the documents that they need. We are looking to the mobile device to be able to move beyond our physical location so that we can go out to the community and work with the members where it’s convenient for them.

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MDM not the only avenue to BYOD security. But technology is simply not there yet.

My reply to Steven Song’s post on Cisco Security Blog

http://blogs.cisco.com/security/mdm-not-the-only-avenue-to-byod-security/

Yes. Mobile virtualization is the way to go. In an increasingly Consumerized IT world however, meeting end-user expectations in terms of convenience, cost and usability is even more important than addressing corporate IT professionals’ concerns about security and manageability. Despite a few remarkable attempts by VMware, Citrix and WISE, technology is simply not there yet.

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Consumerization and Mobile Security

How to bypass the iPad password in 5 second

*** UPDATED AS OF 11/14/2011: I can confirm that Apple has fixed this security flaw in iOS 5.0.1 (9A405) ***

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPHDm88-HAc

Watch how to crack the iPad password in 5 secondsThe consumerization of IT is the single most influential technology trend of this decade. Companies are already well aware of it, as they wrestle with the growing influence of smartphones, tablets, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox and on and on. While this growth does bring business value, too many companies make the mistake to trust consumer technology with corporate sensitive data without deploying appropriate enterprise-grade infrastructure to secure and manage it. Consumer technology is sexy, convenient and easy to use. When it comes to security and data protection however, consumer technology still has a long way to go. Security and data protection in fact remain top concerns among IT professionals – see The Consumerization Report 2011.

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