ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS : Protecting Mobile Access

Smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are among the top growth

technologies today, as organizations use mobile devices to provide personnels

with the information needed to make informed decisions anytime, anywhere. This

mobile business intelligence (BI) raises the value of mobile devices by enabling

organizations to use them to deliver accurate, mission-critical performance

information that is customized to personnels, where and when they need it.

As the delivery of business intelligence on mobile devices becomes

increasingly popular among organizations, five important security guidelines

must be considered.

Authentication



Authentication ensures that only users with valid passwords, IDs and related

identifiers can access a system. Mobile BI solutions should be security agnostic

and must work with an organization's existing security model to define and

maintain identifiers, such as user names, IDs, passwords, regional settings, and

personal preferences.

Mobile BI solutions should also support multiple user communities, including

the ability to assign permission rights to users to ensure that only those with

the proper permission have access to specific folders, sub-folders, reports,

analyses, scorecards, dashboards, shared group-based portal pages, and other BI

capabilities.

Ideally, mobile BI solutions should leverage your existing organizational

security structure to secure all BI content, including the content used on

mobile devices.

Authorization



Authorization ensures that only certain users, groups, and roles can access

specific data or information, and can perform only certain actions on that data

or information.

While setting these access permissions, organizations should leverage users

and groups defined within their existing authentication providers. As with

authentication, the authorization security measures that you establish apply to

all of your BI content.

Safeguard Sensitive Data



Most mobile BI solutions come with an encryption mechanism for all data and

communications. Only authenticated and authorized sources and users can decrypt

the data, converting it back into a meaningful form that can be accessed and

understood. Encryption security applies to all BI data communicated between and

used on mobile devices.

Mobile device manufacturers are acutely aware of the security issues that

users face on their devices and the need to address these issues with security

geared specifically for their products.

Passwords: More Complex, the Better



Passwords are used to control who can use and access data on a mobile

handheld device. To maximize password protection, it is highly recommended to

create a strong password that aligns with password policies of the enterprise.

Strong passwords are refreshed every few months and typically mix numbers, upper

and lower case letters and alpha numeric characters are used.

'Kill' Lost or Stolen Devices



If a device is reported lost or stolen, an administrator can prevent data

stored on the device from being accessed. The administrator sends a remote

'kill' command to the device, erasing all the data on the device-including data

in memory-disabling it from further use.

If connections are disabled on a lost or stolen device, there is no way to

remotely wipe the data. 'Lease key' technology addresses this challenge by

ensuring that data stored on mobile devices remains safe even if a device is

offline and cannot be contacted by an administrator.

Lease key technology functions like a hotel key. The key is enabled for the

duration or lease of your stay. When you check out, your key is disabled and you

are unable to access the room. The room is still there, but you can't gain

access until you make appropriate arrangements, or in the case of some mobile BI

solutions, until you connect, re-authenticate, and are granted a new lease key.

Consequently, BI data is even more secure on mobile devices than email.

V Subramanyam



The author is VP, information management, IBM


Software Group, India/South Asia


vadmail@cybermedia.co.in