Ride the Lightning
Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
Law Firm Bans iPhone Due to Security Risks
December 7, 2009
One of the most controversial Ride the Lightning posts was "iPhone Security? A Complete Misnomer." We were so intrigued by the ensuing dialogue that we expanded the post into an article for the American Bar Association's Law Practice Magazine which was published last month.
Apparently, one mid-sized law firm (50 plus lawyers) took the article very seriously. The firm has cut off all access to the MS Exchange Server for iPhones. Lawyers who have iPhone are being required to get BlackBerrys.
We found out about this because one of their lawyers wrote us (very graciously, I hasten to say) to express his disappointment with his firm's actions because he loves his iPhone. He wanted to know if there was any way to counter the iPhone's insecurity.
John expanded on the article's advice with more concerns about the iPhone's operation.
There is another "feature" of the iPhone that most users are not aware of and we didn't mention in the article (they give us word limits). The iPhone takes a snapshot of each screen as you use the phone and saves the files without any user action. Think of it as a screen capture each time the screen changes. This means that there is a perfect audit trail of every action the user takes on the iPhone. This is one of the things that make the iPhone so "evidence rich."
Though we felt like Scrooge, we had to advise him that there is no way for anyone but Apple to correct the security problems with the iPhone.
Once someone who knows what they're doing gets physical access to the iPhone, your data is their data.
Hoping we don't get coal in our stockings . . .
Listen to the Podcast
