SO YOU'RE lucky enough to have a company iPad or iPhone. But how do you keep the company information on it safe, while still making the most of the cool features it offers?
Durham company Evolve North is offering a security solution called iOS Secure, a British version of a creation by Canada’s Trellia. Evolve North has worked in partnership with Trellia to adapt its solution to British compliance standards and to package it for the UK business.
Effectively, it allows companies to wall off corporate functions of an iOS device, such as company email, contacts and calendars, and put their own security protocols in place. This means the company can update, lock down or wipe that particular area from a central location, leaving the rest of the device unaffected.
It also allows the company to send pop-up messages to devices using “push notifications” and implement data protection using 256-bit AES hardware encryption.
The idea is that companies can often not be sure their data is being held on an iOS device with adequate security. With this system, it could require the user to register the device to get it working, which then applies favoured protocols to the device itself.
Evolve North managing director Mark Dennis said: “There’s a huge amount of pressure being brought to bear for people to have their corporate email on their personal smartphone.
“This sort of system would be useful for employees who want to keep their phone when they move, or for temporary or part-time staff. When that person leaves the business, all of this information can be wiped from their phone remotely.”
Trellia and Evolve North are providing workshops to educate businesses about security basics on iOS devices, and Dennis says “a lot of businesses have their heads in the sand when it comes to iPhone and iPad”. The first UK webinar, called iPhone and iPad Security Basics, will take place on September 20.
Among the markets of particular interest to Evolve North is the NHS, and the company is currently piloting the system in NHS organisations in the North East, as well as in other businesses.
Dennis said: “At the moment, this is applicable to everyone with more than 50 devices where there’s a sensitivity to what they do as an organisation.”
