IOS 7 – another BYOD nightmare

Here we go again. Despite greybeards (sorry, “industry veterans”) like me reminding everyone that they should wait for the x.1 release of any major version, the world, its dog and its mother-in-law all frantically stabbed at download buttons to get IOS 7 the moment it came out. People wasted hours, work ground to a halt, networks were overwhelmed. Another glorious day in the modern era of entirely unmanaged – and unmanageable – IT delivery.

Today we learn that, boringly for the hipster community, the grumpy old men were right once again. IOS 7 has some issues. Most major software releases do. Amongst those issues is a fairly serious security flaw; at least, it’s serious now that the blogosphere has told everyone how to do it. So even if you’ve tried to lock down the BYOD problem with mandatory passcodes, your data is vulnerable once more.

No wonder Good are doing so well.

I’m sure I’ve laboured this point enough on this blog, but this is another reminder that BYOD is both a false economy and a serious security risk. If your employees need access to your data and systems on the move, bite the bullet and provide them with the necessary kit yourselves, and lock it down. Having the latest cool thing is rarely as much of a boon to productivity as the vendors – and the fanbois – would have you believe. Pro tip: parental controls on the iPhone are surprisingly useful as a corporate security tool.

If you can’t or won’t, then either you accept the security risks – and try to mitigate with policies – or you provide secure remote access that keeps your data inside the perimeter while allowing access from your employees own devices.

Whatever you do, don’t ignore the issue.

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