While mobile data is at risk, innovative thinking and careful policies can keep it safe

While more corporates are beginning to see the benefits notebook computers and mobile connectivity can bring to staff efficiency, mobility can bring with it inherent risks such as data loss, increased downtime and the theft of sensitive competitive information.

Traci Maynard, Acer business unit manager at Tarsus Technologies, says: "By being aware of these dangers and putting procedures in place to guard against them, all risk can be removed.

"Managing these risks in the mobile world simply takes a little more innovation than the more traditional approach taken in the desktop market," she continues.

"For example, using the same software used to backup corporate desktops, corporates can ensure that whenever a notebook signs onto the corporate network, any data that has changed is replicated onto a file server and backed-up to tape when the company`s scheduled backups take place. The innovative part comes through setting up policies and procedures to run these backups whenever a fast network connection is present and data has changed," Maynard explains.

"For those mobile users that don`t spend any time in the office, and therefore do not make use of the corporate network, even more innovative approaches need to be employed."

"One of these approaches entails subscribing to one of the many online backup facilities available through the Internet. In a scenario like this, data is kept safe in an online vault and regardless of whether through deletion or a legitimate hardware failure it will still be available to the person with the right credentials for a restore procedure.

Trek to the summit

00Days

:

00Hrs

:

00Min

:

00Sec

"Another innovative solution would be to implement a policy that sees mobile users backing their notebook data up to an external hard disk drive or optical disk like CD or DVD. Since this can be expensive and hinges on the diligence of the employee, however, the former of these two examples is advisable," she says.

By using one of these methods to curtail the risk of data loss, corporates can also reduce the risk of downtime. "A full backup of the employee`s data will usually be kept either on the Internet or on an external hard disk or optical disk. Replacing a hard disk in the case of a crash or a whole notebook in the case of a theft, and simply restoring the lost data minimises downtime and employees can be up and running in literally no time," Maynard elaborates.

The most damaging of these problems, namely allowing sensitive data to fall into the wrong hands is, however, not that simple a problem to solve.

"One of the best ways of solving this problem lies in the use of specialised encryption software, which encrypts selected folders or even the entire contents of a hard disk, thereby ensuring only the user with the correct credentials is able to access sensitive company information. Acer has provided encryption software as a standard on certain of their notebooks with the choice of smart card security options.

"Corporates should also consider this risk when making their notebook purchasing decisions, since some notebook brands like Acer, for example, include this type of functionality by default, saving the company potentially thousands in licensing fees and anywhere up to a couple of million rands in terms of assuring that sensitive competitive information is kept out of the hands of competitors and wrong doers," she concludes.