The Virtual Watercooler For Digital Nomads

by Devin Moore / Oct 30

The virtual watercooler is the net conference.  Workers should be encouraged to meet regularly on phone with a shared screen to go over pending tasks and current issues.  If issues are discussed regularly, the team will feel connected and any irregularities with respect to distance should be minimized.  Another strategy is to have several actual meetings per year, budget permitting, so that people can learn better how to interpret online communications and moods of other team members.  I was surprised at how inefficient “email only” is compared with instant messenger, phone and email together.  A diverse workforce will include employees from high-context and low-context cultures.  You can maximize productivity by providing updates and communication using all forms available, so that if a high-context person is most comfortable on the phone, they are happy with the phone call.  Conversely, if the low-context person prefers to read the email, they have the email available.

Email mailing lists are helpful for making a nomadic workforce easier to manage, but I would like to see a conversation aggregating tool that would save instant messages, phone conversations, and emails all in a searchable format in the same application.  All of these items are communications that may contain valuable data for future reference, and having to rely on everyone on the team to take the same notes is far less efficient than being able to provide everyone with the same notes in the first place.

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Using SMS For Business Communications For Digital Nomads

by David Deans / Oct 29

In the U.S. market, many traditional company CIOs and IT managers still apply a draconian approach to managing the perceived threat of mobile data solutions — they outlaw any and all wireless enabled mobility applications for employees.

However, there’s one low-threat application that even the most conservative company can apply today, but unfortunately it’s somewhat of a mystery to many people.

Put simply, most mainstream U.S. subscribers (consumer and business) are still uniformed about the value in learning to fully use the basic features on their existing mobile phones and associated wireless services. Yes, they need help.

But don’t assume that what’s good for a consumer’s needs is good enough for business user’s needs. Let me clarify this point. We know from empirical research that mobile-originated SMS message composition may be tolerable to teenage girls, but it’s not viable to most mainstream business subscribers (because they resist composing messages on their phone’s tiny keypad).

In contrast, mobile-terminated SMS messages that are composed and sent by a PC user, or automatically generated by a software application, are more likely to be embraced. Therefore, wireless network operators need to acknowledge the differences in user value orientations, and thereby market and promote SMS usage accordingly. Particularly, to potential business users who are uninformed.

Here’s a case in point: We still find most people don’t know that every U.S. wireless subscriber has a unique e-mail address that corresponds to their mobile phone number. Therefore, they’re unaware of basic SMS business applications such as the potential for creating individual short e-mail notes sent to employees, customers and business partners mobile phones (directly from MS Outlook, as an example).

As a result, most businesses aren’t thinking about the incremental potential to utilize a productivity tool already at their disposal — wireless e-mail distribution lists.

What’s inhibiting simple one-to-many SMS distribution list applications? Wireless network operators don’t provide any information on the e-mail addressing format of their competitor’s SMS gateway (and because there’s no standard, they’re all different). In fact, it’s odd that even the CTIA doesn’t provide this pivotal information.

Therefore, the burden is currently on the wireless subscriber to know his or her addressing format, or the sender must quiz the message recipient about their mobile service provider and then make a determination of the appropriate addressing format (again, assuming that they know that particular carrier’s format).

Why all the fuss about basic text messaging? Just as the desktop personal computer and an e-mail account are ubiquitous tools in every office environment today, mobile phones enabled with SMS are the de facto common denominator for mobile text communications.

Why is this profound? After approximately two decades of commercial applications development on the Internet, e-mail is still by far one of the most valued applications. Moreover, SMS-enabled mobile phones have already reached saturation in the U.S. market, whereas most other technologies are still in the early-adopter (wireless gadget geeks, etc.) stage of market development.

So, armed with this information, what are some compelling business applications for SMS? Well, consider these three simple SMS scenarios for time-sensitive information alerts. You’ll see, with a little imagination, you too can create your own benefit-oriented commercial text messaging applications:

Executive Office Administrator sends a broadcast message to 10 traveling board members: “Today’s 10:00am board meeting has moved to 12:00 noon due to an unanticipated event.”

Medical Facility Management sends a broadcast message to eight remote surgery team members: “Due to a schedule conflict, Mr. Jones surgery has moved from OR#2 to OR#4. Reply to confirm message receipt.”

International Airline Customer Service sends a broadcast message to 15 stranded Business Class passengers: “Flight #227 to Toronto has been delayed, please accept a complementary admission to the Exec Club in Term #3 (your access code=3127).”

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The Three Pillars Of Security For Digital Nomads

by David Mould of Techdirt / Oct 28

For the mobile workforce there are three pillars of security:

· Physical security

· Browsing behavior

· Data security

Physical security

From the way the worker carries the laptop through to where and how they leave it there are considerations to be made. Laptop bags are frequently targeted at airports and hotel lobbies. Don’t make yourself a target, use a less conspicuous bag. Get in the habit of locking your laptop to something solid. Even in the office laptops are frequently lifted so if possible lock it down with your docking station. On the road I always use a Kensington lock. Make security habitual, not just when you plan to be away from your machine. If you are on a park bench lock your laptop to it!

Access to the machine itself: Many laptops are now fitted with biometric security devices, typically fingerprint readers. I’m not convinced of the accuracy having used a fingerprint reader for office door access and become frustrated with the making sure your finger is in the same point every time. If you want people to use it the solution must be easy.

By far the simplest layer is a BIOS password. At this level the solution is to delay and trying to prevent opportunistic theft.

Also consider where you are using your laptop. How many times have you been working in an airport lounge or a hotel when you become aware of an interesting conversation by one of your competitors? How many times do you think that person has passed by your machine while you’ve been working? Privacy screens are a simple but effective way of limiting the view of the walk-by browser.

Browsing behavior

Once on the road WiFi defaults as the normal mode of access. Workers must be aware of the threats imposed by public WiFi. As a minimum the mobile workforce should be armed with VPN solutions. This could be a hard token or a software token and they should be educated on when to use it.This is not so straightforward when working in the client site as frequently the ports used by VPN tunnels are blocked.

The VPN solutions do tend to slow down traffic due to the encryption and tunneling bottlenecks. Using some form of protected browsing is a god substitute. Products like IronKey form part of that solution.

Workers should be selective about which WiFi nodes they connect to. At all times avoid ad-hoc networks, turn off Bluetooth, infrared and WiFi when not using them to prevent exposure. In general assume that anything transmitted on public WiFi is in the public domain.

This is where IT policy becomes useful in giving guidance on when to use VPN versus less secure access. The Australian Defence Force studied the typical traffic sent over email. Around 80% of it was “noise” where workers were using email as a form of informal communication to arrange meetings, coffee drinking and networking.They decided that a public solution would suffice opposed to encrypting it all. In the end they opted for Google Enterprise solutions.

The message is clear, if it’s sensitive, contains IP or financial information use a VPN to secure it other than that use your brain.

Data security

The files on the machine form the real identity of the laptop, user and company. This is where the security effort needs to be. Most MS Office files can be password protected to stop casual browsing, not impossible to crack but a simple prevention measure.

Encrypted file systems are the next logical layer of security. However you need to consider what happens if the key is separated from the files, how do you get the data back?

Physical separation of file from operating system by placing them on an external drive works as long as the worker carries the laptop and the drive in separate bags.

Virtual machine options like LogMeIn are one option that allows the worker to access files remotely over a secured connection. Might not be suitable for all users in all environments but can be used quite effectively.

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Digital Nomads Need To Take Control Of Their Own Security

by Chris O'Donnell / Oct 25

I am a digital nomad. I’ve telecommuted from home and worked from various coffee shops between appointments for about 4 years. I’m a sales executive, not an IT person or a developer. Those folks should know how to maintain a secure computer. Corporate IT simply can not control all those laptops being used by remote employees. They have no control over how they are used, where they are used, or what software gets installed. If you are a digital nomad it is (or should be) incumbent on you to take control of your machine and learn enough to not be a menace to the corporate IT support staff. If I was in corporate IT I might consider making it a quasi requirement that remote users get educated enough to be at least partly self-sufficient. If you need to call the help desk for help rebooting your wireless router you are not going to be a productive remote employee.

Corporate can support that by providing training that enables remote users to make smart decisions, and by making smart decisions themselves about what goes on the remote laptops. However, that probably doesn’t happen often. That said, safe computing is not rocket science. As a digital nomad I’ve found that just a few simple things can dramatically improve the security and stability of a remote corporate laptop, making life easier for both end users and IT support staff.

1. Use Up to date anti-virus software. You would think this would be obvious, but I’ve seen a frightening number of corporate owned laptops with expired AV applications. Operating a company owned computer running a MS operating system without antivirus should be a punishable offense. Laptop security is just as important as company car security, and leaving the keys in teh car while you run into the donut shop is a definate no-no.
2. Use Firefox as the primary browser. It’s free, and it can auto update just like IE. However, it is inherently more secure because it is not tightly tied into the MS application stack. The improved standards compliance from Firefox may also lead to less support calls complaining that some web site doesn’t work for the user.
3. Use anything other than Outlook for email. I don’t allow Outlook on the computers I own, and I don’t use Outlook on my work laptop. I use Outlook Web Access when I need to do something with my Outlook calendar. I use Thunderbird for email. You can either connect to the exchange server via IMAP or POP, or you can go even further. I use Gmail to pull all my corporate email into a dedicated work Gmail account, then use IMAP from Thunderbird with the Gmail account. This gives me far better virus and spam filtering then the rest of company gets from the Exchange tools. It also gives me access to all my mail from any Internet connected computer. Of course, this all depends on corporate IT allowing POP or IMAP access to the server.
4. Don’t open any attachment you are not sure about. Again, that should be common sense by now, but it’s not.

That’s it. Follow those 4 steps with your corporate laptop and you’ll be more secure than many of the office dwellers in your company.

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Will Smartphones Be The Next Security Challenge?

by Joseph Hunkins / Oct 24

As wireless connectivity becomes an essential standard for the mobile workforce many experts believe that significant security problems are in store for many businesses.   As smartphones become the most used standard device for virtually every digital nomad working remotely (and often also used working from home and offices), the smartphone has become a potential point of vulnerability in terms company and individual security.

The huge increase in use is combining with open software platforms to create something of a “perfect storm” for smartphone security challenges.    Apple has opened their iPhone platform to developers while Symbian, a key operating system for many phones such as the Treo, has announced they are moving towards open source as well.   Perhaps most significantly Google’s Android smartphone operating system is open source and appears destined to become a huge player in this market – in fact my prediction is that Android will be the most used phone operating system within two years.

Although open source solution do not necessarily bring more trouble, they do mean devices no longer enjoy the protection of proprietary code.   Some would argue this effectively “lowers the bar” for what it takes to become a smartphone hacker since many details of the OS are both available and details are under continuous online discussion.

CTIA-The Wireless Association, a nonprofit based in Washington D.C., is the key international group representing all sectors of wireless communications from smartphones to mobile radio.  This week at CTIA’s “I.T. and Entertainment conference a panel of experts discussed how to secure mobile data.

Mark Kominsky of Bluefire Security noted that bandwidth improvements, easy developer access to the OS, and the ability to actually load programs to the device are the factors that led to an explosion of viruses in the PC environment.

Khoi Nguyen of Symantec noted that Symbian is already struggling with viruses designed to exploit vulnerabilities in Symbian OS number 7 and 8, which is why Symbian 9 is less open than earlier versions.

Panelists discussed problems with malicious programs that can activate phone cameras or audio and then collect sensitive data or create charges for the user they don’t want, but the panel appeared to agree that data theft and data loss are the key threats to an enterprise that depends on workers with mobile phones.

Although one should note that these speakers are in the business of providing security and therefore have a vested interest in people following this advice, the solutions recommended by the panel included the following:

* Protect employee mobile phones with the same security policies and procedures applied to other devices and data.

* Use security software on the phones.

* Update the mobile security applications regularly.

* Inventory mobile devices.

* Disable non-business features on the devices.

* Use password protection on data.

* Encrypt your data.

* Have a remote data wipe capability for devices.

At the same conference Sybase 365’s Bill Dudley noted in an interview that that mobile widgets may present new security challenges for the smartphone.   Since the use of widgets/Google gadgets/ etc is exploding online and on mobile devices, the fact that these may contain malicious code presents a new set of problems.  Dudley suggested that one aspect of the solution can be for companies to run some of the applications through content aggregators who in turn can make sure the applications are clean and the environments are secure.The “Securing Wireless Data” video interview with Bill Dudley is available here:
http://daily.ctia.org/wirelessit08/

PC World reports on the CTIA Security Panel

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Digital Nomad Is Not A Profession

by Varju Luceno / Oct 23

The digital nomad is not a title or a profession. It represents the mindset
and lifestyle of people who have chosen or allowed to break free from a
cubicle and make their living working anywhere and everywhere. New
technologies enable us to do so. One of my recurring nightmares now and
then is a dream where I find myself working in a gray cubicle covered with
yellow sticky notes, eight pairs of eyes looking at me all at once.
This dream motivates me to get back on my laptop and learn new software in
addition to developing multitude of other new skills. Wikipedia states that
“traditional nomadic behavior is increasingly rare in industrialized
countries.” Times are changing partially driven by corporate economies
of scale and societal circumstances.

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The CIA Model for Digital Nomads

by Stephen Foskett / Oct 21

IT security experts apply a three-phase approach to security, considering confidentiality, integrity, and availability of systems. This so-called CIA model is equally applicable to digital nomads, and helps define the various areas they need to protect.

Confidentiality

It is critically important for most businesses to keep their data from prying eyes, both for internal business and competitive reasons and to avoid legal or regulatory trouble. This is doubly true for digital nomads, since they tend to take sensitive data with them and transmit it through a variety of means.

Laptop users should use encryption to protect the confidentiality of their data, since laptop theft is common. There are many options for encryption of data on disk, but most fall into two categories: File-level or full-disk.

Most operating systems, including most recent versions of Windows, include options for file-level encryption, and these have proven fairly solid over the years. Once they are set up, these are extremely easy to use: A user simply right-clicks on a file and selects “encrypt”. There are a number of third-party encryption options as well, and these vary widely in both ease of use and security. Note that these do not necessarily hide the existence of data, however, so a lost laptop would still reveal the name and type of files contained on it.

Full-disk encryption is not as widely deployed, but can be far more effective. Rather than requiring the user to select which files to encrypt, products like PGP Desktop and Windows Vista’s built-in BitLocker software lock an entire drive or partition, requiring a password on bootup. Note that BitLocker requires special hardware to work effectively, making it unsuitable for some laptops. Some disk drives also feature built-in encryption hardware, but these are much more rare.

Regardless of the encryption method used, however, key management is critical. No one wants to be locked out of their own data if they forget a password or experience a software or hardware failure, so make sure some alternative mechanism is in place to recover the data. And if a thief was to guess the user’s password or gain access to a running system, the data could still be compromised.

Remember the data on removable drives as well, since these can be even easier to steal or misplace. Portable hard drives used for backup or USB flash drives used to transport data must also be encrypted to avoid data loss.

Finally, digital nomads must be careful about which networks they use to transmit data. Open Wi-Fi access points might seem to be a handy bargain, but they have also been used to gain access to sensitive data. Hotel and corporate guest networks can also be used in this manner. It is better to rely on 3G modems which are harder to snoop. One should also always use VPN software or secure web sites when dealing with sensitive data.

Integrity

Keeping people out is sometimes less important than ensuring that one is working with valid data to begin with. Most people are aware of so-called phishing attacks, where an email entices a user to hand over their credentials, but there are many other potential attacks on the integrity of data. The same vectors used to give unauthorized access can be used to substitute untrustworthy data, and this can be just as damaging.

Many of the same technologies that protect confidential data can help with integrity. Encryption systems will ensure that data read from disk matches what was written, something that most filesystems surprisingly do not do. But no amount of encryption can protect from a user’s inadvertent writing of un-trusted data.

The first line of defense, especially for mobile workers, is training. Once again, open Wi-Fi hotspots and other untrustworthy networks should be avoided, and virus scanning and firewall software is a must. The Firefox web browser recently introduced a friendly mechanism to verify many popular web sites, but this is not widely deployed for corporate systems. Mobile users should also avoid relying too much on emailed content, since it can be compromised in transit, and should instead use more secure repositories and applications.

Availability

The final element in the CIA model, availability, is often overlooked. Constant travel can cause one to adapt to losses of connectivity by carrying more and more data along, but this opens the door to breaches of confidentiality and integrity of data. Conversely, an extremely secure system could be entirely inaccessible to a traveler, especially for those who spend a great deal of time in the air.

Digital nomads need to strike a balance, carrying enough data to get their work done but protecting the interests of the company (and themselves) by protecting it. Remote network-based backup can be a useful way of protecting laptop data, but these services can demand greater network resources than are available on the road, and restoring a great deal of data can be prohibitively time consuming. Digital nomads will augment these with mobile backups (to encrypted disk) in case a laptop is lost or damaged, since these allow for much quicker recovery.

The availability of 3G data is a tremendous help to the digital nomad as well, since they can be confident that their data will be accessible from wherever they are (on the ground). And nothing can substitute for a solid smartphone, giving quick access to critical email, calendar appointments, contacts, and light web browsing.

By paying attention to all three axes of the CIA model, digital nomads can enhance their ability to get the job done.

Stephen Foskett is a professional information technology consultant, providing vendor-independent strategic advice to assist Fortune 500 companies in aligning their storage and computing infrastructures with their business objectives. He has been recognized as a thought leader in the industry, authoring numerous articles for industry publications, and is a popular presenter at seminars and events. In 2008, he was awarded Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status in the area of File System Storage. He holds a bachelor of science in Society/Technology Studies, from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

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