Informal Brain

The iPhone needs an enterprise level encryption solution badly. Gone are the days when it was OK to have your mobile device data stored unencrypted. As mobile devices like the iPhone become more like personal computers we tend to store even more sensitive data on our devices. This leaves us open to serious data security breaches if the device is lost.

As we well know in industries like Healthcare it is a HIPAA violation not to mention a serious customer trust issue to loose a laptop which may house protected health data. Extending this view to the mobile device when it stores more and more email is natural. In fact, we already require encryption for our windows mobile devices.

So, at first I was excited by Apples announcement that they would support corporate email solutions on the iPhone. But, then I thought, where is the encryption story? Lack of encryption makes the iPhone a non starter in the Healthcare business.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are lots of businesses where they may be willing to take the risk with corporate data on a mobile device, but once you think through the brand and customer risks you realize it is just not worth it. Join me in letting apple know your concerns, and set the expectation that a first class encryption solution can be baked into the platform.

Could File Vault be baked into the iPhone stack for example?