I AM writing this article on Monday 15 May from my daughter’s home in Dubai. I have been here since Friday 12, when it should have been with the editorial team at Business Times on that day! Sorry Julie and Judith. Hopefully, this sincerest of apologies will allow me to be forgiven and still get published.
I have just been reading how our own NHS computers have been hacked, causing havoc among doctors, nurses, hospital management and most importantly patients. It is not surprising as apparently Microsoft programmes from 2001 are still in use on some sites – unbelievable as it may seem. Does anyone remember the super NHS system that cost the taxpayer 10 billion pounds, did not work and was therefore scrapped.
Enough whinging and whining. The key word today must be security, security, security! Have I mentioned the most important thing for our computer systems is security! Hopefully the message is getting home. But the bigger problem in our world of converged communications is not just our desktop systems but the ever-increasing mobility we have with pocket size devices which have the power to access the heart of our business. We must ensure that these are also secured. Like everything in technology these days the field is alive, constantly moving forward and advancing. Therefore, your mobile unit must be constantly updated against the threat from without and the threat from within. Within you ask? Yes, even your top flight salesman, field engineer, managing director or even chairman has lost their mobile, laptop or tablet. (In the case of the latter it was not his fault!) To protect from both the answer must surely be MDM.
Mobile Device Management – the ability to communicate with the device, to know where it is, to let you know if it is somewhere it shouldn’t be, to give or remove software or applications, to limit or advance its functions, in fact, in my experience almost anything one can think of – including wiping the Chairman’s data before it could fall into the wrong hands.
As Chairman of dbfb my technical knowledge has diminished almost as fast as technology has advanced but the basic principles have never been clearer, bank robbers are a thing of the past, the highwaymen chant of ‘your Money or your life is now ‘give me your money or we’ll take your data’!
Enough rambling. The temperature has just hit 36 degrees centigrade, there is not a cloud in the sky, the swimming pool beckons and maybe the odd gin and tonic.
Have a nice day!