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Sean Glynn, Director at Credant: Mobile laptop usage soaring - but what about company data security?
August 2009 by Credant Technologies
The apparently amusing tale of how New York coffee shops - apparently fed up with laptop users hogging their table space and using up electricity for hours on end - has a much darker message, says Sean Glynn, Director at Credant Technologies.
According to Sean Glynn with the endpoint data protection specialists, the story highlights the fact that laptop usage amongst business people has now reached critical mass.
"Thanks to the proliferation of public access WiFi and mobile broadband dongles, laptops used for business are no longer the preserve of road warriors," he said.
"Ordinary business people are now taking their laptops out on the road with them, on the bus, on the train, in the coffee shop and especially taking them home," he added.
According to Glynn, this proliferation of laptops poses a potentially very serious security risk for companies, as they are effectively losing direct control of their data.
You can, he explained, now buy a mobile broadband dongle from Vodafone in the UK for 39 pounds that comes with a gigabyte of data transfer and no major time limits. Extra gigabytes can be purchased for 15 pounds a time.
Factor in widespread usage of public access WiFi, he says, and the security risks of company data leaking out become all too apparent.
The solution, he went on to say, is to introduce encryption and authentication technology to the use of laptops and company data.
"That way, the valuable data stored locally on the laptops is secured, and can only be accessed by the accredited laptop user," he said.
"And at 15 pounds a gigabyte, the mobile data costs are containable without any commitment on the part of the company," he added.
