Keeping your mobile business data safe

In a recent story about an Android app that was surreptitiously harvesting information from a users mobile, we learned that there are few protections on certain platforms for securing information. Even the iPhone, which has better than average security and inter-application isolation, is still subject to potential exposure if the device itself is lost.

Rover Apps thought of the challenge that business owners would face in allowing vital business information to be relayed and stored on an unmanaged mobile device. Which is why from day one, all of the data exchanged between a Rover Gateway and Retriever mobile clients is encrypted and remains encrypted even on the device. This means that if a data-harvester app on Android tries to pull the Retriever data, all it might get is a bunch of really hard to crack (every users encryption is different) encrypted ‘stuff’.

If a device is lost or stolen, same thing, your Retriever managed data is still encrypted and therefore of no value to a thief. You information remains secure and confidential.

But what if the device is not even lost or compromised, but simply is picked by an unauthorized person and they decide to ‘browse’ your apps? Well, we have that covered as well. Retriever can be set to require a unique PIN at application launch. And additionally, includes time-limited login that requires re-entry of the users password. Between these two techniques, ‘casual’ loss of confidential information is protected.

This allows business owners to remain confident that even on unmanaged, employee-owned smartphones,  their Retriever-managed information is secure and protected.



Comments

[Anon]

This is only getting worse, see the latest story on Android issues on NetworkWorld: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/092910-android-privacy.html