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Apple reports iPhone progress in the enterprise, but long road lies ahead
Aside from the 5.2 million Apple iPhone units that were sold in the third fiscal quarter, Apple had another interesting announcement: The iPhone is making inroads within the enterprise. The company reported that about about 20 percent of Fortune 100 companies placed orders of 10,000 units or more, while some governmental agencies ordered up to 25,000 units. The security and encryption features of iPhone OS 3.0 made an impact, the company said. (See more on Apple's results.)
While Apple has been making progress in catering to the enterprise, security has continued to be a concern. The 3.0 version, however adds an on-device encryption for data and a remote wipe feature for Exchange 2007 users. If users subscribe to Apple's MobileMe service, non-Exchange users can access remote wipe services too.
According to Rich Mogull at TidBits, the new Apple 3G S inherently offers better security too because the hardware includes an encryption chip that uses the industry-standard AES-256 protocol so that information on the device can be wiped nearly instantly by erasing the encryption key stored on the device. Mogull is right in saying that considering how much information we store directly on our devices, such a capability is a very important feature.
Apple has included some new enterprise features in 3.0 as well. It updated its iPhone Configuration Utility and published an 83-page enterprise deployment guide for the iPhone OS, which details how to configure, activate and deploy phones within the enterprise as well as, among other things, how to distribute apps that are developed in house. Other features include improved support for VPNs and additional management capabilities.
Moreover, enterprise security experts appear to be keen on delivering security products for the iPhone. RSA released this week its RSA SecurID Token for iPhone product that is available in the iPhone App Store. The solution delivers RSA's one-time password software token to the iPhone and two-factor authentication.
But do these enhancements want to make the enterprise want to rush out and adopt iPhones? If anything, they put them closer to being on par with enterprise stalwart Research In Motion. Apple still has a long way to go before it can offer the kind of enterprise control that RIM's Blackberry Enterprise Server does, especially around device management. At the same time, the enterprise is grappling with employees who are demanding iPhones. It is going to be a gradual change.
Apple COO Tim Cook said during Apple's conference call yesterday that, "the iPhone is particularly doing well with small businesses and larger organizations that allow (employees) to purchase phones for individual use, both in corporate and government settings." So it doesn't appear Apple is making a ton of headway in enterprises that have a tighter control on devices.
Interestingly, I wrote a column in FierceWireless this week about my choice to opt for an iPod touch over the iPhone, simply because I didn't want to pay for a monthly plan, and I could still access apps via Wi-Fi. One reader pointed out that a fair number of people have a Blackberry and an iPod touch in the enterprise because Blackberry is the only device their employee pays for or supports. Everyone wins, he said, especially Apple because the company gets its hardware into the hands of Blackberry users, and it doesn't have to wait for companies to approve the device. In essence, the iPod touch is serving as the entry point for the iPhone in the enterprise. By the way, Apple reported that unit sales of the iPod touch grew 130 percent in the quarter compared with last year. - Lynnette
Editor's Note: I want to welcome Philippe Winthrop, director of business mobility solutions with Strategy Analytics, as a regular columnist for FierceMobileIT. Check out today's viewpoint, co-authored with Digital Trust's David Goldschlag. They make a compelling argument as to why the enterprise needs its own app store.
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By Anonymous | Posted 9:08am | July 23, 2009
See www.iphoneinsecurity.com for more information.
July 14, 2009: Seven Deadly iPhone Sins: What Every Enterprise Should Know
With buzzwords like, "hardware encryption" and "remote wipe", many enterprises have been misled into believing that the iPhone 3G[s] is secure enough to store confidential correspondence or other information. Apple is no doubt pushing the enterprise market, but is the iPhone truly secure enough?
While this subject truly warrants a complete white paper, take the following points into consideration. The following apply not only to the iPhone 3G[s], but also to earlier generation devices. Here are the top seven things every enterprise should know about the iPhone:
1. The 3G[s] passcode and encrypted backup password can easily be bypassed in about 30 seconds. This allows an identity thief who gains physical access to the device (for only a short time) to not only access the 3G[s], but to sync an unencrypted copy of its data through iTunes, creating a copy of the owner's contacts, correspondence, photos, and other valuable data. If it can be synced with iTunes, it can be stolen in a very short period of time.
2. The 3G[s] promised hardware encryption, but this hardware encryption does not protect the information on the iPhone from an information thief. The operating system needs to automatically decrypt the iPhone's disk in order to boot, allowing anyone with the right know-how to easily acquire all of the data - including deleted data - on the device, bypassing any encryption. In fact, the only useful benefit for hardware encryption thus far has been the ability to quickly format the device, discussed next.
3. Remote wipe and "LocateMe" features can easily be disabled by simply removing the SIM card. Any semi-intelligent thief looking to steal information from your corporate handsets can easily shut these features down within seconds, armed with only a paper clip.
4. If your device is stolen, not only is the iPhone's live information exposed, but also all of the deleted information on the device. Because the iPhone has such a large storage capacity, it can take six months or more to cycle through deleted data. The hardware itself is designed to minimize writing to the same place on disk, leaving a wealth of deleted data for an information thief.
5. The iPhone OS has a built-in keyboard "logger" which logs nearly everything you type into the device's keyboard to auto-learn the owner's typing habits. As a result, endless logs of data are being created containing information typed in by the user. Even fields with auto-correction turned off have been seen to have some of the data entered in them stored in this cache.
6. Every time your employee pushes the home button, the iPhone snaps a screenshot of the last thing they were doing. This is done for most built-in applications such as Mail and Safari, and has been observed for many third party applications as well. A large collection of screenshots of "the last thing" your employee was looking at are being stored on the device, exposing screenshots of potentially confidential information to anyone with the right know-how.
7. There is a wealth of information stored on the device that most users don't even realize is there. Information about your last GPS positions, which wireless networks you've joined and where, your search unread voicemail, and much more. Anything that goes through the iPhone is indefinitely stored on the iPhone.
Consider the risk to your enterprise should the confidential information on corporate iPhones be stolen. The iPhone is about the size of a small laptop disk drive, and is about as easy to copy information from should a thief steal or "borrow" it without your knowledge.
By hardmanb | Posted 1:27pm | July 23, 2009
The information in the first comment is beyond by knowledge, but I have a few questions:
Are any of these problems common to RIMM devices?
Are they configuration-dependent? (the set-up)
Do the Winmo, Android, Palm phones have these problems?
Are the limitations subject to a future software fix by Apple?
By Anonymous | Posted 3:23pm | July 23, 2009
No, the BlackBerry devices deployed with BES with required encryption turned on are not able to be bypassed.
Because the data on the BlackBerry is encrypted based on the device password.
Even if you could bypass the system password, without a valid password the data is not accessible.
This is also not possible on Windows Mobile with encryption turned on, because again the data is encrypted with the password for the device.
I don't know about the others, BlackBerry and Windows mobile are enterprise ready products that most large organizations standardize on. There is a reason there are companies not supporting iPhone for their users.
You do not have this capability with the iPhone. The encryption key is not based on any user defined variable (like system password) So if you can bypass the system password, you have access to the data on the device. The iPhone has always had a method to bypass the device password without erasing it with every firmware release, so it's unlikely Apple can do anything about this without an entirely new product that handles encryption different. So that even if the system password is bypassed the data is still encrypted.
By Anonymous | Posted 5:07pm | August 13, 2009
Clearly this individual is looking through pro-RIM tinted glasses, in other words, biased.
By Anonymous | Posted 8:12pm | August 13, 2009
The article and response states: "BlackBerry and Windows mobile are enterprise ready products that most large organizations standardize on." this is because the Blackberry entered the enterprise space before Apple did. I recommend searching the internet under iPhone enterprise. There are large companies deploying and using the iPhone for their enterprise solutions. Consumers are passionate about their iPhones and bringing it to their workplace. There are many additional services, partnerships, and complementary solutions in this space. This article is not only biased but if you notice, there is a RIM pop-up ad when you first visit this site.. Hmmm.
By lluna | Posted 7:46pm | August 14, 2009
I write articles based on trends. And this is an editorial, not a news article so there is going to be an opinion expressed.
Look for additional stories I have written about how the iPhone is coming in the back door. Very few enterprises have made the iPhone a corporate liable device. They are coming in as individually liable devices.
http://www.fiercemobileit.com/story/competing-mobile-phone-platforms-look-enter-back-door-enterprise/2009-08-05
http://www.fiercemobileit.com/story/report-iphone-having-measurable-impact-enterprise-productivity/2009-08-12
Lynnette Luna
By Anonymous | Posted 9:43am | January 16, 2010
We deployed Blackberry and BES many years ago and then WinMo after that. Two years ago we moved away from corp-owned devices to employee owned. Since that time about half our existing devices have switched to iPhone and among NEW devices added, iPhone leads 2 or 3 to 1 each month. Clearly the people's choice is iPhone in our company. I worry about the lack of security but we have given people a choice and their choice so far has been iPhone.
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