For a growing number of people working across a broad range of sectors that have them dealing with a variety of confidential information and a day to day basis there is one fear on their list of anxieties that seems to constantly climb higher on their list of greatest fears. It is the feeling at the root of the jolting convulsion that happens when she can’t find her phone (it was in her coat all along), or that mad dash back to the cafe hoping against hope that her left-behind bag still contains her work tablet. For this increasingly large segment of professionals, losing a mobile device can mean more than simply activating the “Find Me” feature or buying a new and expensive device: it means the compromise of critical information of potentially job-losing importance.
This is a fear that can be satiated by mobile device management (MDM) software, which compartmentalizes critical information in a variety of methods. Yesterday, BluStor announced that its newest solution to this growing problem, the Secure Mobile Briefcase (SMB), will be available for preview in Spring 2014, shipping next fall.
Designed to give mobile peace of mind to industries that traditionally struggle with BYOD policy for the reasons illustrated above – namely education and health care, but also clearly finance and any sort of firm that requires the handling of confidential data – Secure Mobile Briefcase brings biometrics, bluetooth and devices based proximity factors together into a MDM solution that BluStor describes as virtually unhackable.
Secure Mobile Briefcase is a two-pronged defense mechanism. The Android or iOS device being outfitted downloads the SMB app, which can be set to seal the entire device or act as a container for critical data, and collect a number of biometrics for authentication (fingerprint, iris, voice, etc). The second prong is the BluStor card: a piece of bluetooth hardware that acts as the storage for which ever biometric templates are being used as keys to the briefcase.
When the briefcase is asked to open it requires biometric input. Even if the device is successfully spoofed, the lock can’t be bypassed unless the associated card is present for two reasons: the SMB is proximity based, so the card must be there to add its key factor, and it also stores the templates used for the biometric matching.
The SMB is multi-platform, thanks to the bluetooth functionality and its compatibility for both major mobile operating systems, and it successfully hits all landmarks in a desirable virtual access system. The solution asks who you are (submitting a biometric), what you know (which biometric and how many), and what you have (the card and its templates).
The key to success for this high level security solution is what it ends up meaning to the end user. The multitude of security factors involved in this MDM solution would mean very little if they were less convenient than general password practices used in offices. Though the process is complex in nature, SMB boils down to a very simple experience: have the card on your person and touch, look at or speak to your device.
This is the thing we will be seeing more and more of as we move into the post-password paradigm: higher adoption of BYOD for security purposes, and alleviated anxiety for the workers involved.
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