7445_04-17_NEWS&ANALYSIS 15/09/2008 17:52 Page 6
■ NEWS & ANALYSIS
Hyped handsets bring
security headaches
By John Kennedy
DEVICES like the new iPhone 3G are
being hyped as the business tools of
tomorrow. But firms don’t realise that
employees are losing devices with
information valuable to opportunistic
thieves.
Every year businesses spend mil-
lions of euro ring-fencing their IT sys-
tems with sophisticated perimeter
security to keep external attackers at
bay. But a leading computer expert
has warned the threat to IT systems
from hackers is almost disproportion-
ate to the damage inflicted on busi-
nesses by their own workers.
Threats range from executives care-
less with devices they are trusted a newspaper headline. While hacker adverse publicity.” Such cases are cer-
with, such as phones and laptops, to stories have a sexiness, the reality is tainly not rare, he added: “They hap-
disgruntled workers leaking sensitive that huge losses in business are due to pen everywhere.”
information to competitors. employees who leave the company Hamel said the biggest threat to IT
Earlier this year, a laptop containing with vital information they either give security in the coming years is the
medical information on 175,000 blood to competitors or use to start their threat from the loss of devices like
donors belonging to the Irish Blood own businesses.” smart phones and laptops. While it is
Transfusion Service was stolen in New Hamel has over 16 years’ experience one thing to lose a laptop, he said,
York. It subsequently emerged that a of criminal investigations, including BlackBerrys or the Apple iPhone 3G
number of laptops belonging to Bank performing computer forensic exami- have sufficient storage capacity to
of Ireland Life and containing data on nations with the Royal Canadian hold a company database many times
31,500 account holders were stolen Police, and has helped solve crimes over. Not only can they connect to the
over a six-month period and not ranging from murder to sexual assault internet and make data transmission
reported. In the case of Bank of and serious fraud cases. easy, their appearance also makes
Ireland Life, the laptops had no “I investigate a lot of white-collar them attractive prey for thieves.
encryption to protect the data. crime and usually problems arise Hamel warned that astute organisa-
“These are just the tip of the ice- when an employee leaves on bad terms tions should focus on technologies like
berg,” said Rene Hamel, an expert on and takes a client list with them. In encryption to safeguard iPhones and
computer forensics at KPMG. “The one case, I looked at a financial com- similar devices. “It’s a potential disas-
amount of damage caused to businesses pany which had an ex-employee it sus- ter. The biggest threat today is not so
by employees not securing information pected of taking a customer database much hackers but laptops assigned to
or devices is hard to quantify because and bringing it to a competitor. employees who connect remotely.
fear of adverse publicity means inci- “The case went to court and the Many are failing to encrypt these
dents are rarely disclosed.” rival company used the defence that devices. BlackBerry devices can be
The investment companies make in the information on the database, such encrypted and if you lose one there’s
IT security is not proportionate to the as names and phone numbers, could very little chance you’ll recover infor-
actual data they use for business, he have been obtained easily from any- mation from it. The iPhone will have
added. “A company whose data is its where. The one thing it didn’t consider to do the same thing. There’s a lot
life’s blood would typically spend less was the database had a field with more information on these devices –
than 5pc of its IT budget on security or codes that were used for sending mar- anything between 8GB and 16GB. I
skills. The biggest losses to firms are keting material or follow-up calls. This would hope that those businesses con-
often from an internal source. You will proved the competitor to be at fault sidering using them have studied the
never see a hacker making ¤700,000 in and it resulted in a massive fine and encryption situation,” Hamel said.
6 Knowledge Ireland September 2008
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