Security on the go...

There has been much talk about how mobile devices and computer security have this huge gap between them. A developer can buy a license or not, and slap code onto a mobile device quickly and with ease.  I have even developed a few apps for my windows phone myself, for personal uses of course.  I've made a few games in XNA studio that run on my windows phone among other things.

Code these days is being allowed to run on almost any device.  Did you know most refrigerators with LCD screens and special features run some form of Linux, and can be 'unlocked' or 'hacked' to, for example, play Tetris while you wait for your Hot-Pockets to finish in the microwave?



Well, in this day and age of the smart-phone era, robust applications are able to run on these phones that have as much processing power as my computer did 10 years ago.  Not only are they robust applications, but in many  cases businesses have come to rely on them for their productivity increasing, mobility enabling characteristics.  This article cites a study, or survey of sorts, that Symantec took of "6,200 IT Decision makers" and the results were not surprising.  "73 percent of organizations have already achieved increased efficiency through the use of mobile computing."

Line of business applications, such as point of sale systems, inventory management, and mobile book keeping make certain businesses thrive in a world where instant gratification is all anyone is usually looking for.  I saw on a TV show called Restaurant Impossible, something similar to Kitchen Nightmares, where a famous chef and restaurant owner Robert Irvine, comes in and saves a sinking restaurant.  Well in this episode I watched, Robert takes the victim, or recipient of assistance rather, to another restaurant in the neighborhood to get advice from their owners. Interestingly the owners of the 'other' restaurant mentioned point of sale, inventory notices, budgeting, and cost reports, all from his telephone.  The gentleman mentioned that the simple addition of that robust capability in his business contributed to a very high increase in productivity and efficiency of his establishment.  This just goes to show how simple innovations in mobile processing can increase a businesses productivity, and therefore why ignore it or even consider not relying on it?

Reliance on mobile devices has increases over the years.  The article points out the trends used to be focused within small sectors of industry.  For example inventory management of a warehouse operation relied on mobile devices for communication and tracking.  Now-a-days the smartphone craze has weaved usage of mobile devices into almost every industry you could possibly consider.

With reliance comes the fact that if the device were to crash, or be compromised by hackers, that your business would suffer.  This is why we need to start merging computer security and mobile security into the same philosophy of use.  Applications written for mobile devices should have the same, and in my opinion more, emphasis put on security and solidity of code.


“In the end, once the hype dies down and people figure out the strategy and get their technology in place, it is just another endpoint,” Desai says. “And you still have to manage it and secure it.”
Another survey out this week, sponsored by Forescout and conducted by Boston Research Group, seems to substantiate Desai’s belief. Among 365 IT security pros surveyed for the study, a full 96 percent said they wanted unified security policy management for both mobile devices and PCs in the enterprise."

One of the biggest concerns when I use my smartphone and third party applications, is that it has all my sensitive data on it.  All my contacts, their emails, my log-ins for bank applications emails and so on.  This is one of the reasons I feel like mobile devices should have more security built in somehow, and a new philosophy of development instilled in future programmers.