july 2

Is your iPhone more secure than your laptop?
If a BlackBerry gets stolen, it can be wiped of all information remotely
Computerworld Opinion by GlassHouse CTO, Jim Damoulakis

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9026044

Amid the hullabaloo around introduction of the iPhone last week, we were once more reminded of how porous data centers really have become. MIT analysts and security columnists felt compelled to put forth words of warning regarding the grave security risks associated with allowing an iPhone to gain entrance into the enterprise data realm. In some ways, their admonitions, while valid, strike me as a case of too little too late.

The boundaries of where data actually resides within an organization now extend well beyond the data center to desktop computers, remote offices, employees' homes and laptops, USB drives, and, yes, phones. The problem that I have with some of the iPhone alarmism is that it leaves an impression that enterprise data is highly secure and that there aren't lots of other potentially much larger holes on which to focus.

After all, how many lost laptop stories have appeared in Computerworld in the past year? Cumulatively, we're talking about thousands of laptops, most with far more sensitive data -- millions of customer records, corporate intellectual property -- and far less traceable than the average smart phone containing contacts, e-mail and maybe a few gigabytes of MP3s. Yet, the majority of organizations do not have adequate security or data backup capabilities in place for their employees' laptops.

If my BlackBerry gets lost or stolen, it can be wiped of all information remotely, and since it is synchronized, the data can be transmitted to a replacement phone in minutes -- a wonderful capability and one reason corporations love BlackBerries. As the analysts correctly point out, the iPhone is not currently in the same league. But the question to ask is really, "Is the data protection and security of corporate laptops more akin to the BlackBerry or the iPhone?"

I'm not advocating opening enterprise access to alien devices or enabling Internet Message Access Protocol on Exchange servers. The last thing corporate IT needs is another security hole (or another technology) to support. However, I am suggesting that if your smart phones are safer than your laptops, it may be time to re-evaluate your priorities.

Jim Damoulakis is chief technology officer of GlassHouse Technologies Inc. , a leading provider of independent storage services. He can be reached at jimd@glasshouse.com.