Home
Loading Carousel Data, Please wait ..


More Commentary
Get news delivered to you
BYTE Technologists

BYTE Categories
BYTE Newsletter
Keep up with all the BYTE News and Reviews

Subscribe
Larry Seltzer

Larry Seltzer

Commentary

Smart Workplaces And Their iPhones

| Larry Seltzer, InformationWeek | October 05, 2011 11:27 AM

Category: Tablets, Smartphones, Operating systems

Apple may not like to brag about it, but they have made the iPhone a superior smart phone from the point of view of IT. In fact, the iPhone is approaching the IT status that Windows achieved in the 90's: the acceptable, safe solution because of good management and security.

More Insights

Webcasts

More >>

White Papers

More >>

Reports

More >>


I spoke with Alex Horan, Sr. Product Manager at Core Security about what we thought, at the time, to be the iPhone 5. iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, it doesn't really make a difference for this analysis. Horan stressed the iPhone's potential... for mischief. The iPhone's weakness is not anything technical, it's popularity. Because it's the the most popular platform for smart phones, it's the most popular target for criminals. It's the same popularity problem that got Windows to be such a dirty ecosystem, although Microsoft did make it easy for attackers until about 2003 or so.

I know what you're thinking (or at least it's what I'd think): Isn't Android more popular already and certain to pass iOS in market share? Yes, and some analysts say the same about Windows Phone (eventually), but it's not the same thing. There are many Android phone vendors with dozens of hardware platforms and distributions of the operating system. The same is, or will be true of Windows Phone. The only iOS devices come from Apple and there are very few of them. I would hazard a guess that the iPhone 4 is the number 1 model of smart phone. Writing exploits is much simpler when you can target one specific phone like that.

But if you want to go to the trouble and expense of securing your employees' iPhones, with the exception of Blackberry there is no better smart phone from a security and manageability standpoint. Oh yeah, Blackberry. IT loves them and there are plenty of companies, especially in financial services, that still allow only Blackberries for company use. But they've been losing the hearts and minds of users for years now and I don't see any sign of that turning around.

Fritz Nelson thinks that Siri, the iPhone 4S's new voice-controlled personal assistant, is the only defining feature of the new model.

Incidentally, at least of the major smart phone platforms, iOS and Blackberry are the only ones to support IT policy-enforced device encryption. That and strong password policies seriously mitigate the substantial risk of lost devices. Other platforms support remote wipe, but you can only invoke it when you know the device is missing. How long would it take a thief to recover data from your unencrypted device? Not too long, especially if there's a removable card in it.

Horan also pointed out the risks in iCloud, risks which are probably the same as in any of the emerging consumer cloud services (Microsoft Skydrive, Amazon's cloud, even separate services like Dropbox). You have to be careful about company data making its way on to such services, especially if you are subject to regulatory regimes like HIPAA, Sarbox or FISMA.

So a smart workplace's attitude towards smart phones is to let users have what they want, as long as it can be managed and secured. There has to be a management system which will limit the user's ability to do what they want with the device; there has to be full device encryption and there has to be strong password enforcement.

There's nothing significant in the iPhone 4S or iOS 5 to change IT's perspective on this. It's the same, only more so.

My colleague Eric Zeman lists 5 key features that were missing from the iPhone 4S.

Larry Seltzer is the Editorial Director of Byte.



Related Reading

News

Most Popular

Commentary

On the Web



Currently we allow the following HTML tags in comments:

Single tags

These tags can be used alone and don't need an ending tag.

<br> Defines a single line break

<hr> Defines a horizontal line

Matching tags

These require an ending tag - e.g. <i>italic text</i>

<a> Defines an anchor

<b> Defines bold text

<big> Defines big text

<blockquote> Defines a long quotation

<caption> Defines a table caption

<cite> Defines a citation

<code> Defines computer code text

<em> Defines emphasized text

<fieldset> Defines a border around elements in a form

<h1> This is heading 1

<h2> This is heading 2

<h3> This is heading 3

<h4> This is heading 4

<h5> This is heading 5

<h6> This is heading 6

<i> Defines italic text

<p> Defines a paragraph

<pre> Defines preformatted text

<q> Defines a short quotation

<samp> Defines sample computer code text

<small> Defines small text

<span> Defines a section in a document

<s> Defines strikethrough text

<strike> Defines strikethrough text

<strong> Defines strong text

<sub> Defines subscripted text

<sup> Defines superscripted text

<u> Defines underlined text

BYTE encourages readers to engage in spirited, healthy debate, including taking us to task. However, BYTE moderates all comments posted to our site, and reserves the right to modify or remove any content that it determines to be derogatory, offensive, inflammatory, vulgar, irrelevant/off-topic, racist or obvious marketing/SPAM. BYTE further reserves the right to disable the profile of any commenter participating in said activities.

Disqus Tips To upload an avatar photo, first complete your Disqus profile. | View the list of supported HTML tags you can use to style comments. | Please read our commenting policy.
COMMENTS
Tune In to BYTE
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Newsletter RSS
Related Webcasts
Whitepapers
whitepaper
CIO Strategies for Consumerization: The Future of Enterprise Mobile Computing
In this paper you will learn the five trends shaping the future of enterprise mobility. Learn how the rise of social media as a business application, the lurring between work and home, the emergence of new mobile devices, the demand for tech savvy employees and changing expectations of corporate IT will fundamentally change the workplace.
whitepaper
Media Tablets in the Enterprise
In a survey of more than 1,700 information workers (iWorkers) in North America, notebooks, desktops, and smartphones were found to be “must-have” devices, while tablets, slates, and netbooks were relegated to “nice-to-have” status, according to a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell and Intel.
Sponsored by: Dell
Upcoming Events
View More >>


Oct 20: Becoming a Security Detective - Gathering and Analyzing Security Intelligence in the Enterprise

In this all-day virtual event, experts will offer detailed insight in how to collect security intelligence in the enterprise, and how to analyze and study it in order to efficiently identify new threats as well as low-and-slow attacks such as advanced persistent threats. Register today!

Platinum Sponsors: ArcSight, NetIQ, Proofpoint, Thawte
Gold Sponsor: Q1 Labs



October 6: InformationWeek 500 Virtual Event: The Need for Speed

At the 2011 InformationWeek 500 Virtual Conference, C-level executives from leading global companies will gather to discuss how their organizations are turbo-charging business execution and growth.

Platinum Sponsor: ArcSight, Workday
Gold Sponsor: IBM


Aug 25: InformationWeek & Dark Reading present: How Security Breaches Happen and What Your Organization Can Do About Them

Attendees will get insights on how to prevent breaches from happening, how to research and identify the source of a breach, and how to remediate a compromise as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Platinum Sponsor: ArcSight, NetIQ, Thawte
Gold Sponsors: Lumension, NetGear, GFI
Silver Sponsor: Motorola


July 28: InformationWeek & Symantec present: Infrastructure at Risk -- Taking Decisive Action to Secure Your Critical Data Assets

Join the editors of InformationWeek and leading security experts from Symantec for an in-depth look at the current threats faced by large and small organizations, and the implications for your business, your customers, and even your country. You'll hear how today's threat landscape is changing drastically, and learn the latest countermeasures and best practices to keep your company's precious data assets out of the hands of determined cybercriminals.


July 27: Electronic Health Records -- Moving from Concept to Reality

At this InformationWeek Healthcare Virtual Event, we will talk with healthcare practitioners, IT professionals and other industry experts about issues surrounding EHR selection, deployment and use.

Platinum Sponsor: HP, Intel, GBS, Geotrust, NextGen
Silver Sponsor: Proofpoint


On-Demand: InformationWeek & Interop present: Business Mobility Unleashed

 In this virtual event, the leaders behind InformationWeek Business Technology Network and Interop zero in on the top mobile technologies and techniques you'll need to understand and master to ensure your organization thrives in the wireless world.
Platinum Sponsors: Alcatel-Lucent, APC
Gold Sponsor: HP
Silver Sponsor: Emerson Network Power
Bronze Sponsor: Skybot


On-Demand: Cybersecurity Best Practices

 In this half-day virtual event, experts assess the state of cybersecurity in government and present the latest strategies for creating a more secure, attack-proof IT infrastructure. This event will help CISOs and other information assurance professionals in federal, state, and local government stay on top of the latest developments in the field.
Platinum Sponsor: GeoTrust
Gold Sponsor: Bit9


On-Demand: Data Center Transformation

Data centers are undergoing incredible transformations that create both opportunities and challenges for IT professionals. Server virtualization enables rapid provisioning, more efficient use of resources, and improved disaster recovery. That trend will continue with storage and network virtualization, allowing IT pros to further abstract -- and optimize -- data center resources.In this virtual event, you will learn how prepare your organization for a data center transformation.
Platinum Sponsors: AMD, APC, Cisco, Eaton, SunGard
Gold Sponsor: Emerson Network Power


On-Demand: Cloud Computing Roadmap: Controlling the Cloud - Managing, Optimizing and Integrating Cloud Services with Your Existing IT Infrastructure

In this virtual event, you'll learn how to craft your own strategy for successfully embracing and integrating new cloud computing capabilities without derailing or destroying your current IT roadmap.
Platinum Sponsors: ArcSight, GoToAssist, SunGard, thawte
Gold Sponsor: Symform
Silver Sponsor: Skybot


On-Demand: Plugging the Leaks -- Finding and Fixing the IT Security Holes in your Enterprise

In this virtual event presented by Dark Reading and InformationWeek, you'll find out how criminals target the flaws in your IT environment, and you'll get some insight on the best methods for finding and fixing your vulnerabilities -- before you're hit by malware or unauthorized access.
Platinum Sponsors: NetIQ, Novell, thawte, Webroot
Gold Sponsors: ArcSight, Bit9, OpenText
Silver Sponsor: Application Security, Core Security, Lumension

 

View More >>



The 2011 Informationweek 500 Conference will be held at the beautiful St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort, Dana Point, CA. Mark your calendars for September 11-13, 2011.



InformationWeek Healthcare IT Leadership Forum




Bank Systems & Technology Executive Summit 2011

View More >>
Related Reports
Related Whitepapers