If you set down your phone, you don't
want to give someone else the opportunity to gain access
to that mobile device.
For that reason is very common to use screen locks.
Screen locks may require a fingerprint for someone
to gain access to the system, which
means you would have to physically touch the device
for that device to unlock.
These days, our mobile devices can even look at our faces
and recognize that we are really the owner and to unlock
the system when they happen to identify our face.
Some mobile operating systems will even
allow you to set a swipe pattern on the screen.
So as long as you can repeat that pattern,
you would gain access to the phone.
There might also be a passcode involved,
for example a personal identification number,
or it may be a complex password you have
to enter before gaining access.
Normally, a device is configured to only allow
a certain number of unsuccessful attempts
at unlocking the screen.
For example, in iOS, after 10 failed attempts
it will simply erase everything on the phone.
And in Android, it will lock the device
and require you to log into your Google account
to regain access to that mobile device.
Our mobile phones are small devices
and it can be very easy to lose track of them.
Fortunately, our phones have built-in capabilities
that allow us to find out exactly where they
may be located.
This is done through global positioning system radios,
and it may also use 802.11 to help triangulate
where it may be.
This will allow you to find your phone
and even endpoint the location on a map.
You can also have your phone make
a sound which will allow you to listen for where that phone may
be located.
And if you aren't able to gain physical access to the phone
again, you could also wipe everything on the phone.
By deleting all that data you know that no one else
would gain access to it.
If you're in a situation where you lose your phone
or you have to delete all of the data on that phone,
it's important that you have a backup.
These mobile devices are constantly moving,
and so it becomes difficult to be
able to get a backup from that particular device.
Fortunately, there is remote backup capabilities
built into most of our mobile devices
that allow us to backup constantly to the cloud.
This isn't something that you would have to manually start
or even think about during the day.
It's an automatic process that keeps your system backed up
wherever it may be.
This isn't using any wires.
We don't have to plug it into our computer.
It's simply using the 802.11 network that we're connected to
or it's using the carrier network.
This means if we lose our phone or we perform
a remote wipe of the phone, we can
purchase a new phone, put in our username and password
for our cloud-based credentials, and then
simply wait as all of our backed up information
is restored to the new device.
As with our desktop systems, we have
to be very concerned about viruses
and malware for our mobile systems.
For an operating system like Apple's iOS,
the environment is very closed.
The operating system itself is tightly regulated,
and it's difficult for applications
to be able to circumvent the security
controls built into iOS.
If malware wants to install itself on an iOS device,
then it needs to find some vulnerability that Apple
doesn't already know about.
The Android operating system is a bit more open
and allows you to install applications
from any third party.
Because of this, it might be a bit easier for malware
to find its way into that operating system.
Fortunately, the applications that
run on these mobile operating systems run in a sandbox.
That means the application only has access to the data
that you allow it to have access to.
An application won't be able to access your contact list
or go through your browsing history
unless you specifically allow the application
that level of access.
Although these mobile operating systems are relatively safe,
it's still important to maintain the updates and patches
for these operating systems.
There are still vulnerabilities that can be found,
so security updates are an important thing
to stay on top of.
You want to be sure that your system is up to date
with the latest version of software.
Your operating system will also have
updates that make the operating system more stable
and may provide additional features.
And there are features built into the operating system that
could automatically install these updates when
they're available.
On many mobile devices you can use a PIN code and gain access
to the device, but we're also combining different types
of authentication factors.
For example, you may use a face scan, a fingerprint scan,
and a personal identification number
to increase the security of these authentication methods.
We tend to have our mobile device with us wherever
we might go, so using biometrics as a way to authenticate
makes perfect sense.
But biometrics aren't perfect, and people have found ways
to circumvent the biometric readers that are on some
of these mobile devices.
So you want to be sure to use the right type of security,
depending on what you want to secure on that mobile device.
Your phone can also act as an authentication
factor for a third-party login.
This is a pseudo random token generator
that will create a code on your screen
that you can then type in during the login process
to confirm that you really do have that phone with you,
and therefore you must be the right person
to log into that account.
We used to accomplish this by carrying
around a physical token generator
that we would connect to our keychain or have with us.
But since we already have our phone with us,
we can perform the same function in software on the phone
and not have to carry around an additional hardware
token generator.
We keep a lot of personal information
on our mobile devices, so it's important
that we keep that data safe.
And one way to keep it safe is to encrypt all of the data
on these mobile phones.
In iOS, all of your information is
encrypted using your passcode as the encryption key.
If someone doesn't have the encryption key,
then they don't have access to any of your data.
A similar functionality can also be
turned on in the Android operating system, where
you can encrypt all of the data and make
sure everything is safe no matter where
your mobile device might be.
If you're running the Android operating system,
you want to be very careful about the applications
that you're installing.
These APK files can be downloaded
from any third party, so it's important to trust the person
that you're downloading and installing these files from.
In iOS, all of the files that you would install
are curated first by Apple.
They've examined the application,
and they feel that the application is safe enough
for all of their users to install.
In Android, files can be installed directly
from the Google Play Store or they can be
installed from a third party.
This is a process called side loading,
and that's usually where viruses and malware will find
their way onto a mobile device.
When we think about security, very often
we think of a firewall.
But most mobile phones don't include any type
of firewall capability.
Most of the activity on this mobile device
initiates on the mobile device, so all of this
is outbound traffic.
There aren't any services running on the mobile device
that anyone would need to access from the outside.
There are a number of third-party applications
that you can install on both iOS and Android,
but very few of them seem to be very mainstream.
Where you see a lot of firewalling
occur for mobile devices is once the mobile device is
in the enterprise, you're able to filter out
what mobile applications can go through your enterprise
firewall and thereby protect the mobile devices that you have
on the inside of your company.
Instead of having one mobile device
that you use for personal use and a completely
separate mobile device that's used for business use,
it's very common for an organization
to piggy back their data onto your personal device.
This is called BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device,
where your personal device is also used for work.
This obviously brings up a number of challenges
for the organization.
How do you allow a user to maintain the privacy and safety
of their data while at the same time maintaining the safety
of the company's data?
Often this is done using a third-party device which
is called a Mobile Device Manager, or an MDM.
This allows for centralized management
of the mobile device, so that not only can you
specify where data is stored on that device
and how it's protected, but you can also
control different aspects of the device.
For example, you can require that a passcode
is used for the lock screen.
Or you may be able to enable or disable
the camera on the mobile device.
This means that you only have to carry around
a single device for both home and work use,
and it also makes sure that the company
is able to keep all of its data protected.