05-08-12 | Blog Post
There’s no question that our society is embracing the technology that is in front of us. You can go back almost 25 years and in 5 year gaps, see the massive innovation and technological impact that our society is seeing on an everyday basis. In the US today, more than 50% of cell phone purchases are now smartphones, up from 21% two years ago. With this massive increase in mobile computing, security has become the focal point. However, it has seemed that security is always on the tail end of the explosion in the mobile computing sphere.
This past January, a story broke out about a man who forgot his passport as he was entering customs to enter the United States from Canada. Realizing he had a scanned image of his passport on his iPad, he then proceeded to hand his iPad to the customs agent in hopes of it being enough to get him into the United States. After a few minutes of deliberation and some awkward looks, he was allowed into the United States with his scanned image of his passport in hand towards his destination. According to border officials, these types of situations are usually handled on an individual basis and can go many different ways, but this type of thinking by this man is a possible realization of things to come.
With the technology available, there is an opportunity to have documents with us at all times when we need them. Not only could this result in us having access to our music, videos and pictures at a moments notice, but personal documents as well. This could pose a huge security risk to ourselves. There is always someone trying to manipulate systems in place for their own benefit. People have created fake passports, fake IDs, and have found many loopholes in systems. These types of malicious activity happen all the time and are a continuing and growing threat to our everyday life.
In an everchanging world, more and more of these types of cases will be coming up in the near future. There are already talks and technologies in place where your phone could become a personal wallet to make transactions with the flick of a wrist. It wouldn’t surprise me if there comes a day when we’ll have scans of all of our sensitive documents (SSN Cards, birth certificates, financial documents) all on our tablets for identification purposes and having a paper copy becomes obsolete. If this becomes the norm of mobile computing, there needs to be measures on all ends of the spectrum to better secure ourselves.
This first and foremost starts with the user. Whether that’s having some sort of Disaster Recovery plan to all of your files, or implementing a Two-Factor Authentication solution to the mix, there are ways where you can keep yourself better protected. Until there are full security measures in place among everyone and is implemented by everyone, security will always be a huge factor to the future of mobile computing as it stands today.
On the topic of Mobile Security, Linda Daichendt from the Mobile Technology Association of Michigan will be the keynote speaker at our Spring into IT event on May 11th discussing: “The Mobile Explosion: What Does it Mean for You, Your Business, and Michigan’s Economy”.
For more information on mobile security, check out Mobile Security: How Safe Is Your Data? and Mobile Security: Are Your Apps Safe?
Sources:
Smartphones Dominate Market
