Back to the future What we have learned from the wireless revolution so far is that security is taken seriously, but users need to keep an eye on reality. While each new version of client and server software promises improved security, the version in your handset or other mobile device may not be there yet. And your service provider might not have all of the possible security measures enabled. Beware of making false assumptions about the level of security actually implemented in your wireless systems and make sure you have them tested before going live with production data. Despite its futuristic capabilities, wireless data access also requires a solid dose of old-fashioned common sense to achieve appropriate levels of security.
Security always boils down to nature.
Natural disasters and human nature, the latter being embodied in employees, customers, clients, vendors and anyone else with whom our systems connect and communicate. That means we have to educate and encourage these constituencies to practice mobile data defense, which probably starts with dire warnings about the consequences of losing devices, and quickly moves on to the topic of password hygiene. Despite the promise of hardware tokens and biometrics for user authentication and access control, the vast majority of systems still rely on passwords, and will continue to do so for some time to come. Even our sophisticated digital certificates, which enable us to extend the protection of Public Key Infrastructure to mobile devices, are ultimately protected, in most cases, by passwords. So these need to be strong, fresh and as unique and hard to guess as possible.