Smart Phone Security

Quick note to supplement my 2015 Tech CLE materials 

I use Livescribe Sky Wifi pen for audio/note taking which plays exceptionally well with Evernote, which I also use to clip save and share web articles.

Evernote, provides links to various quality technology articles. Today they posted one on a subject I discussed at the Tech Seminar and which i think is important.

The article which was also published by the American Bar Association expresses a bias toward Blackberry and Windows phones because of resident remote wipe and security tech. I prefer Samsung for other reasons and prefer some quality remote wipe and security programs I will address another day.  As for security, I started with Norton/Symantec and have never had a reason to change.  

With that disclaimer, I think anyone with a smart phone needs to consider data breach and security concerns and so I pass on this useful link. I copy and paste a portion of the article so you can decide if it is something you want.

How Smartphones Threaten Business Security: Coming to Grips with the Facts 

Unfortunately, smartphone users are exposing their employers to security threats in a major way, and faster than anyone imagined, which has grave implications for businesses—including law firms. In the scramble to respond, here are things that you and your firm should know.

The trade press is consistently reporting that concerns about smartphones are outrunning anxieties about cloud computing, which has been a major worry for security specialists for several years. So, are there ways to control the use of smartphones and reduce the security concerns? Sure—and they are usually employed by large-scale enterprises. But are small businesses using them? Almost invariably the answer is no.

The time has come for all businesses to address this thorny issue. To begin, you need to know where the biggest concerns lay.

Levels of Security within the Devices

Most analysts agree that, among smartphones, the BlackBerry and the Windows Mobile devices provide the best inherent level of security. The BlackBerry is considered especially powerful because it not only comes with remote data wiping capability but also provides confirmation of remote wiping, which could be critical in the event of a data breach.

For other devices, or for companies that are supporting multiple smartphone models, management software from vendors such as Credant Technologies, Good Technology, Sybase, Trust Digital, Trend Micro and MobileIron, among others, can be a big help. These platforms offer centralized control of several key things:

• Password management (i.e., complexity and history)
  
• Authentication authorization
  
• Strong encryption of the device and inserted memory cards, if available
  
• Inactivity timeouts, in which users are logged out of an application session after a specified period of inactivity (often 5 to 10 minutes) and are prompted for a password when they next resume activity
  
• On-demand remote wiping
  
• Authorized applications that can be installed to the phone
  
• Features access (e.g., disabling use of the camera for pictures or videos)
  
• Automatic wiping if a device is lost or stolen, or if the user (or someone in possession of the user’s phone) enters the authentication credentials incorrectly a specified number of times
  

As some wags have noted, even plastered out of your gourd, you ought to be able to get the password right in 10 tries.

for the rest of the article, see the link below:

http://www.americanbar.org/publications/law_practice_home/law_practice_archi