Today's focus: Butter-fingered mobile device users create IT risk
By Joanie Wexler
The need for a structured approach to the management and security of mobile devices is escalating. Smartphone-style devices, in addition to supporting voice communications, are increasingly likely to also store sensitive corporate data and intranet connections. And they are most easily left behind for an outsider to find and potentially exploit.
Given a recent study reflecting the staggering rate at which mobile devices are lost, building policies around using passwords and encryption capabilities is becoming imperative for businesses.
Pointsec Mobile Technologies, a mobile data protection company (admittedly with a vested interest) sponsored a study among licensed taxi drivers in nine countries to measure the degree to which mobile devices are lost in transit. The U.S. company that was polled in the survey - a major Chicago cab company - reported the highest number of losses per taxi of all the participating companies: about 3 devices per cab over the half-year time frame.
The statistics work out to 85,619 mobile phones, 21,460 handhelds and 4,425 laptops being left behind in this company's vehicles during the six months.
Pointsec notes that many of today's mobile devices have a standard memory capacity of 80M bytes and can thus support the equivalent of 6,000 Microsoft Word documents, 720,000 e-mails, 360,000 contact details, or 7,200 pictures. Even if you personally aren't worried about the potential vulnerability implications, legislation is cracking down about the auditing and security of information. So the probability of legal action taken against organizations that do not protect the info on mobile devices is likely to only increase, Pointsec notes.
Bob Egan, president and CEO of Mobile Competency, a Providence, R.I. consultancy adds in his company's Mobile Viewpoint column this week, that these are among the reasons CIOs and IT managers should start paying attention to tools such as JP Mobile SureWave Mobile Defense and Sprint Managed Mobility Services. These tools let enterprises remotely disable lost or stolen handsets, or wipe them clean.
JP Mobile SureWave is a tool that allows IT departments to wirelessly deploy, update and enforce security policies enterprise-wide dynamically. Administrators control a range of security options over the air, including mandatory device lock and group settings, remote device wipe and remote password reset. For its part, with its Managed Mobility Service, Sprint takes responsibility for over-the-air configuration, security management, asset tracking and billing management of an enterprise's fleet of mobile devices.
In this spirit, note also that Version 9 of the Symbian operating system, a mobile operating system that runs in certain Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic, Siemens, Sony Ericsson and other smartphones, gives network operators and enterprises additional capabilities to manage the devices over the air. Version 9 was announced earlier this month.
RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS
Smartphone virus, spam threats loom Network World Wireless in the Enterprise Newsletter, 12/20/04 http://www.nwfusion.com/nlwir1090
Sprint, Intel tackle IT mobility mgmt. challenge Network World Wireless in the Enterprise Newsletter, 11/01/04 http://www.nwfusion.com/nlwir1091
Mobile Competency "Viewpoint" http://www.mobilecompetency.com/
Wireless: NextHop to play WLAN leapfrog Network World, 02/14/05 http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/021405-nexthop.html?rl
Mobile: Tool 'mobilizes' unstructured data Network World, 02/14/05 http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/021405-agillix.html?rl _______________________________________________________________ To contact: Joanie Wexler
Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology
writer/editor in California's Silicon Valley who has spent most
of her career analyzing trends and news in the computer
networking industry. She welcomes your comments on the articles
published in this newsletter, as well as your ideas for future
article topics. Reach her at
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