Brown's Bytes - Told You So

Brown’s Bytes – Told You So

Welcome to Brown’s Bytes! Your weekly insight from Mobliciti’s CTO Andy Brown. Follow #brownsbytes

15th September 2017
Told You So
So, the iPhone X is announced and most of the rumours turned out to be true.

Talking with customers there are already concerns about the biggest change to the OS – the change to the login. Key questions on Faceprint vs Fingerprint already being:

Will faceprint integrate into apps the same as fingerprint did?
Can we block it if we don’t like it?
Is faceprint really more secure?
Did Apple really just say fingerprint perhaps isn’t as secure as we thought?

At present, we’re all waiting to get the answers…

Talking with the tech teams, there has also been a collective “Meh” to the new phones announced as well. While I do think that’s a little unfair (all phones have been iterating on features for a while now), it does seem there isn’t much new being shown here from a technology perspective. Apple do have a long history of bringing together technologies and making them work well together so I’m waiting until I get my hands on one before giving a final judgement.

However, the thing we predicted that has certainly been a talking point is the price: £1149 for a phone!

We can’t make it cheaper, but we do have ways to help realise the residual value and bring down the TCO – get in touch if you want to know more about how to do this.

8th September 2017
This is Your Final Reminder
Just in case you’ve missed it, don’t forget that next week is Apple keynote week…

Whilst the iPhone 8 is bound to get most of the press, do remember that this will also be the starting gun for the release of iOS11.

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iOS11 is a pretty big shift for the OS
Fortunately, our testing to date with Betas has shown a good degree of compatibility, but the devil is always in the detail and you will find things that break (they always do).

Be ready for your users installing it as soon as it releases and the inevitable calls to the support desks…

Have a great weekend!

1st September 2017
Security on Mobile isn’t Easy
This week I took a look at the latest Gartner report relating to “Critical Capabilities for High-Security Mobility Management”. Gartner’s link is here and it is also available for free download from a number of our partners. It has a catchy title and a long read, but well worth it if you take security seriously on your mobile estate.

There’s a lot of ground covered in this report and for us it’s great to see many of our technology partners faring well.

If you boil the 59 pages down, there are two key points:
1. This stuff isn’t easy
2.The best way to do this is to use best-of-breed solutions

Or to boil it down further… Come talk to us!
Seriously – we cover a number of the technologies listed in this report and we’re the Mobility experts. If you want more information then get in touch.

25th August 2017
What About the Macs??
Thanks to Neil for covering for me during my break. I’m back from leave so you’re back to more meanderings from myself!A common challenge we see a lot in companies is how to manage Apple Macs. Usually this is triggered by one of the following use cases:

There will be a creative part of the company that expects to use Mac by default. These are the people who usually are offended by even the idea of using a Windows device!
The senior manager that looks at the shiny Macbook and expects to be able to use it at work.
Companies start to embrace BYOD and then a Mac shows up…

As we all know it has historically been much easier to embrace Windows in the Enterprise due to the granular controls built into the OS for the last 20 years.

Apple Mac has always done things differently (note – not necessarily worse) and this creates a friction when you try to integrate them into the rest of the environment.I’ve seen many approaches to try to do this quickly. Short cuts, such as running Windows on a Mac or Citrix on a Mac, they introduce a lot of compromises to user experience and usually throw the baby out with the bathwater,when the whole point was to embrace the user experience of MacOS. Projects then stall and get canned…

Meanwhile the number of Macs being shipped continues to rise and the chances of this headache going away get smaller and smaller. Given my previous posts about Windows 10 moving over to the world of Mobile management, it seems natural that Mac could potentially do the same thing.

It would be a thing of beauty – a single platform to manage:

Mobile Devices (Apple, Android and Windows Phone)
Windows 10 desktop/laptop/Surface
Apple Mac

The cool thing is – as of yesterday MobileIron released enhanced Apple Mac management into their Core product….so it’s available today!

Granular management controls for Mac – all the stuff an Enterprise would expect (Force Encryption/Firewall, App Push, Corporate App Store, App Blacklisting/Whitelisting) is all there.

I’ve banged on before about DEP for Mobile as well – and this is also supported on Mac for a great out of box experience!

If you want to finally solve the Mac headache then get in touch.

18th August 2017
Internet Access is Now a Human Right According to the UN

As mentioned in a previous Byte the EU have ended roaming charges within the EU.

This is obviously great news for organisations, as costs will be much reduced thus allowing mobile users to be productive and connected while roaming in the EU.

BUT, this is not true when roaming outside of the EU, to the Middle/Far East or to the Americas, usage costs can be extortionate and end up costing the organisation a small fortune.

Whilst there are ways to restrict/cap data usage, these restrictions are going to push users to connect to public Wi-Fi hotspots.

This in itself provides a few pain points, such as:

• How do we know if the Access Point/Network is ‘safe’?
• Credit card details may have to be entered to use the network

So, what is the solution? An intelligent, global Wi-Fi network with over 60 million hotspots that include hotels, coffee shops, airports and even in-flight Wi-Fi, all with a single username and password and a ‘last mile’ VPN.

Surely this is just a dream?

No! It is in fact a reality and it allows for unlimited usage, on multiple devices for a per user/per month cost. For more information, get in contact.

11th August 2017
Content Filtering: Why it Should be Extended to Corporate Mobiles

Most organisations that take security seriously have a content filtering solution deployed. These solutions provide visibility of usage and also protects firms from intellectual property being leaked whilst controlling access to unapproved content.

Generally, these solutions are deployed to corporate laptops and desktops but rarely are they applied to corporate mobile devices. As mobile devices generally have apps from multiple developers and are designed to live on the internet and outside of the protective corporate firewalls, here are a few reasons content filtering should be now seen as a must have technology.

Mobile Cost Management
Preventing users from using non-business applications and content, as well as preventing tethering will reduce data costs.

Preventative Security
Preventing users from accessing high-risk sites and content, reduces the exposure to risks.

Legal Protection
Preventing users from viewing adult material and infringing of copyrights will protect the company from being held responsible.

Data Leakage Prevention
Preventing users from uploading corporate data to sharing site ensures corporate data leakage is minimised.

The list above is not an exhaustive list but just a quick outline of some of the benefits for extending content filtering to your mobile fleet.

If you wish to discuss what policies should be put in place or to find out more please contact us.

4th August 2017
Roam Like Home… Or Is It?

Before I go away on my summer break I thought it would be timely to talk about roaming charges.

There has been a lot of press recently about the fact that the EU have forced the carriers to remove roaming charges when roaming within Europe.

This is genuinely good news for consumers and a lot of noise is now being made about “Roam like Home” type tariffs that incorporate this requirement.

A collective HURRAH all round then…no more roaming charges within Europe!

NOT SO FAST!

The EU ruling was put there to protect consumers and they are the ones who now have access to these tariffs.

As far as the EU is concerned, Enterprises are big enough to look after their own tariffs and roaming bills. From speaking with customers, it does seem that there is an assumption that this will apply to business tariffs as well. This isn’t the case.

Simple tip this week is therefore to suggest that you read the small print on your tariffs before everyone goes on Holiday!

If you want help trying to manage your carrier or would like a business tariff that had transparent pricing then please get in touch.

Now where did I put my travel adapter?

28th July 2017
iOS11 and the iPad

There has been an interesting debate for a while now about where does the iPad fit when most people are happy with using their smartphone these days.

In addition, the iPad Pro really has (literally) stretched the boundaries of Mobile devices to the point of overlap with traditional Operating Systems – both Mac OS and Windows. Unfortunately, there are times when this stretching becomes rather obvious and it can start to feel like a giant iPhone!

Enter iOS11.

We’ve been testing the iOS11 beta for some time now. For the first time, it does feel like a split Operating System where the iPad experience is diverging from the phone world. On the iPhone, the UI just feels slightly tweaked, but on an iPad it is a dramatic change (and for the better).

Are Apple looking for a new niche for the iPad? iOS11 is definitely taking the iPad towards being a more Enterprise focused tool – maybe this is the niche….

I’d recommend having a look at the features and seeing how iPad, in particular when combined with Microsoft’s Office Suite, is now closing in on being a genuine laptop replacement.

If you’d like to know more about iOS in the enterprise then please get in touch.

20th July 2017
Deploy iOS 10.3.3 Now!

A quick one for you this week….

Following on from last week’s byte, today we’ve seen the latest release of iOS come out (10.3.3).

It’s mainly a security fix release (and most likely the last release for iOS10). I’d suggest taking a look at the Apple page here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207923 for details of what is included.

Suffice to say that’s a whole heap of potential holes. As is always the case, releasing the patch only highlights the vulnerability to the bad guys.

So, the simple advice – patch now!

Read the list of vulnerabilities and then also decide if you should now get in touch about how to better protect your Mobile devices in the wild….

14th July 2017
The Picnic Problem

A recent blog titled “The iPhone at 10: Still No Major Malware” was an interesting perspective on iOS and how it is often seen as the most secure Mobile OS.

It’s a view I come across a lot when speaking with customers – in particular when we talk about Mobile Threat Detection. Often the response is “what really is the risk?”

For the record, I do agree that iOS is the most secure Mobile OS. However, I’ve also seen what is possible when it is compromised and I wouldn’t want to put it out in the wild without a security solution on it any more.

There are many reasons for this, but the major one would be the old IT support adage – PICNIC (Problem in Chair, Not in Computer).

Apple makes the user king on iOS – it is one of the reasons why Enterprises have traditionally struggled to mould the OS into their locked down corporate requirements. This is therefore the key weakness of the OS.

The OS security is only as good as the user who is using it.

Malware, Sideloaded Apps, Man in the Middle Wi-Fi, etc, are often designed to be initiated by the user overriding all the security controls in the OS.

What was particularly interesting about this blog was that it’s been put up by Intego. They specialise in selling security solutions such as Antivirus and Firewalls for the Apple Mac. Not so long ago the same “what’s the risk” argument would have been used for MacOS and yet here we are with an ecosystem of AV for Mac. There was a tipping point where that view could not be sustained and the need for Mac security was accepted.

Mobile Operating Systems are at this tipping point. I would strongly suggest you get in touch to see how you can easily deploy security solutions to protect your Mobile estate.

7th July 2017
Unpick the Bundle!

Whenever you negotiate your mobile contract, whether it’s for thousands of connections or for your personal device, you will always come up against the same problem….

Carriers Love to Bundle!

By this I mean whenever you look at the deal you get a per device per month charge that covers:

Device Cost
UK Call Minutes
SMS allowance
UK data allowance

Even on a personal level, have you noticed it’s almost always impossible to compare like for like when you’re shopping around as each available option from different carriers will be subtly different with the options bundled together.

Multiply this up with a Corporate account and it gets even harder…

Why do carriers do this?

Pretty obvious when you break it down – it allows costs to be moved around and hidden away and prevents customers from working out if they’re getting a good deal!

The tip is therefore:

Unbundle!

As a bare minimum, I’d suggest getting the hardware out of the bundle – what’s left will be a LOT easier to pick apart.

This is why we only offer separate device and SIM options and we provide transparent tariffs with no nasty surprises.

I’d strongly recommend looking into this further (especially with the £1000 iPhone 8 on the way).

For more information on how we can help you manage your mobile spend better then please get in touch.

30th June 2017
Office 365 is Under Attack!

The Cloud.

A large percentage of enterprises are looking to utilise cloud services such as Office 365, and it makes sense as these cloud services offer a number of benefits including less capital expenditure, increased collaboration and the ability to work from anywhere.

But although cloud service providers implement the best security standards and adhere to industry certifications, storing data and important files on external service providers coupled with the ‘always available’ data model, it always opens up risks and provides a sizable area of attack for people with malicious intent.

Here are some statistics sourced via Skyhigh around Office 365 Adoption Rate, Stats, and Usage.

Office 365 implementations are under attack:

71.4% have at least one compromised account each month
57.1% have at least one insider threat each month
45.9% have at least one privileged user threat each month

That is scary reading!

So how can we reap the benefits of cloud services without compromising our data?

Adding adaptive authentication capabilities to ALL Office 365 entry points, this includes 3rd party mail clients (i.e. Apple Mail) which can currently only protect with username/password, gives much greater protection.

The result is the most complete protection, using multi-factor authentication with risk analysis, for the world’s most widely used cloud app – regardless of how users are accessing their Office 365.

To find out more get in touch.

23rd June 2017
The Inconvenient Security Truth?

I recently spent some time with Jeff Kukowski & Keith Graham (CEO & CTO of SecureAuth) when they were in the UK. As part of a briefing we did together for our customers they included some key facts from the latest Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report that I think need to be called out in isolation:

1. Last year there was more spent on security solutions than ever before, but it was also a record year for security breaches.

Simply put – either the threats are growing faster than the solutions being implemented, or the wrong solutions are being implemented! This is scary stuff, but then consider that

2. The Number 1 way that attackers get in is… VALID CREDENTIALS!!

Is this the problem? Security solutions are letting bad guys in because the username/password they’re using is correct – it’s either been compromised, guessed or even deliberately shared by a rogue employee.

I believe that Multi-Factor Authentication is now a must for all organisations. It is the context of the authentication that protects against the use of valid credentials by attackers – even if the password is correct!

This is precisely why we’ve partnered with SecureAuth. Their technology makes life very hard for the bad guys, whilst making life easier for the genuine users… whether they’re authenticating to Cloud Services or traditional VPN and on-premise infrastructure.

I’d strongly recommend looking into this further if it’s not on your security radar already. For more information on how we can help then get in touch.

16th June 2017
DEP For The Masses

As expected, at this year’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple announced iOS 11 would be available in the Autumn.

Although there are a number of GUI updates and enhancements, it was really the new MDM features that I was focusing on.

Apple did not disappoint.

The feature that really caught my eye was the ability to add any device to DEP.

Companies will be able to add iOS and Apple TV devices that were purchased outside of the traditional DEP-supported channels. Admins just need to connect devices to Apple Configurator 2.5 (currently in beta) and the serial numbers will be added to the organisation’s DEP portal.

This means you can now erase the device and the next time the device turns on, it will go through the DEP steps during setup.

Note: there is a 30-day provisional period where admins can still remove the device from DEP to prevent accidental enrolment

To find out more about our iOS beta testing do get in contact.

9th June 2017
Is Patching Android’s Achilles Heel?

So as predicted Apple have announced the end of updates for the iPhone 5 and 5C.

If you were one of the last to buy an iPhone 5C in September 2015 then you will (just) have got 2 years use out of that device before it no longer gets updates.

Many enterprises work on a 2-year cycle to replace devices so no great shakes there, but I’ve seen others sweat the assets for much longer so please make sure you’ve covered this risk off!

So, what about the world of Android?

Also, coming soon is Android “O”. Like all Mobile Operating Systems this will be an amalgam of feature enhancements, bug fixes and crucially security fixes.

What gets rather interesting is if you look at OS adoption figures.

Fortunately, both Apple and Google share this information:

– Apple’s stats are here
– Android’s stats are here

Apple has 86% of devices on the latest major OS version (iOS10).

Android is by comparison a mess of different versions. Only 9.5% of devices are on Android N despite it being released nearly a year ago! Amazingly nearly 20% of devices are still on Android KitKat!!

Now there are a lot of reasons for this disparity, but the key message here is simple. If you’re thinking about deploying Android (or indeed any) devices in your enterprise, you need to make sure you understand the patch cycles for the entire lifecycle of that device. You do not want to be in a position where your devices are unable to get the latest patches in a timely manner.

If you’d like to know more about this and how to best adopt Android in the Enterprise, then please get in touch.

2nd June 2017
Time to Start the Beta Testing…

In advance of the weekend a little reminder that Apple has it’s WWDC event next week. There are plenty of pages full of the usual speculation about what might be announced, but for now I wanted to flag that this is highly likely to be the event where the wraps come off iOS 11 for the first time.

Further to my previous posts, this is likely to be a significant update for couple of reasons:

The end of 32 Bit Hardware support (anything older than an iPhone 5C will need replacing)
The end of 32 Bit App support

The good news is that Apple should start making Beta releases of iOS11 available very soon so you have an excellent opportunity to try it and see what breaks before your users do…

If you don’t already do this I would highly recommend spending some time completing regression tests of your Apps and environment using the Apple Beta releases.

As with all Beta testing you will likely find more issues the earlier in the Beta cycle that you test this, but it is definitely worth investing the time in it. At the very least you’ll know if there is an issue before your users find it for you!

One note of caution – it’s not unheard of for features to drop in the Gold release that were missing in the Betas. You still can’t quite guarantee what will happen, but you’ll definitely be better prepared than most.

We’ll also be completing regression testing in our labs for the technologies we support as well. So, if you’d like to hear more about how our testing is going then get in touch.

26th May 2017
The Data Offload Dilemma

We all know that mobile data consumption is on the rise. In fact, according to predictions in a recent whitepaper from Cisco (well worth a read by the way) it’s set to balloon even more over the next 5 years. There are a lot of drivers for this, but fundamentally as the adoption rate and capabilities of Smartphones grow so does data consumption.

So, the amount of data being consumed is rising.

Unless the tariffs you’ve negotiated are as smart as the ones we offer our customers then your carrier costs are rising too.

Many customers therefore see Wi-Fi offload as a useful tool in the kit bag and a simple way to offset the increase in data consumption. Either as a formal policy, or just because your users do it anyway, you will have a lot of your devices connecting to public Wi-Fi at some point.

It gives many benefits:

Connectivity where carrier signal isn’t available
Reduced mobile data consumption
Roaming data offload to significantly drive down costs

Now for the issues:

Can you trust the Public Wi-Fi you’re connected to?
How do you know if the hotspot is genuine?
How do you stop users from connecting?
Do you even know when users have been on Public Wi-Fi?

It’s an interesting challenge.

You can’t trust the network; you can’t stop users connecting and you don’t know when there’s been an issue.

That’s pretty scary stuff…

As always, we have solutions to solve this which allow you to securely embrace Public Wi-Fi correctly. Get in touch if you want to know more.

19th May 2017
Holding Back the Tide

The WannaCry malware has brought patching back into focus and I thought it would be useful to look at how traditional OS patching often drives behaviour relating to patching in the world of Mobile.

First, let’s start with a few basic facts around the issue:

All Operating Systems have security weaknesses
When these are found there needs to a patch to fix it
Implementing a patch is implementing a change to your environment
Changes break things in unexpected ways!

Windows has traditionally released each individual fix as an individual patch and then given the Administrator the power to decide which patches are rolled out and when. Patches can even be removed if a problem is found. This has driven a cycle of patch testing and a slow release of tested updates into the environment in a very controlled manner.

However Mobile Operating Systems such and iOS and Android take a different approach:

Mobile OS updates are Monolithic – they contain a mixture of many security updates, bug fixes and feature enhancements in a single update
Updates are one way – you can’t go back
The user decides when to install them (usually very quickly)
The updates can come at any moment!

This causes a significant headache for Mobile Administrators. I’ve seen in many organisations where they’re still thinking like a Windows Admin and send a message to the users saying something like:

“Please don’t install the update yet as it’s not been tested and may break things”

“Please don’t install the update as it breaks xxx App”.

Put simply, this is trying to apply the traditional patch testing cycle without the controls to do it properly.

It is the same as trying to hold back the tide.

Worse is the hidden issue…

Now imagine there is a Malware targeting the Mobile OS that the update fixes (and they do already exist). That email to the users is now effectively saying “Please leave your device open to attack”. Nobody wants to be the Admin who has had a security incident as a result – the NHS running Windows XP is a prime example.

So, the top tip is simple here.

Implement patches as fast as you can and accept that things may break.

We’ve been banging the drum about Mobile Malware for a long time now. The threat is real and increasing! We can help you with this by implementing our Mobile Threat Defence solutions.

But at a basic level make sure the OS is patched as a minimum!

5th May 2017
Windows 10 comes to the party

For a long time the way you managed your “full fat” Windows estate and the Mobile estate have been very different.

The way Windows is built/deployed/managed hasn’t really changed that much since the days of Windows NT4 (that’s over 20 years ago now…. I’m getting old!!). Usually it goes something like:

Build / maintain corporate Windows 10 image
Buy kit
Hand over to “Build Team” who flatten the disk and re-image it with a corporate build
Add to domain
Add management agent
Install software

Once built the machine is then designed to live inside the firewall on “the network”. For laptops, you then have to add in VPN and security layers to allow the device out into the wild world. The VPN was critical for managing and updating the machine too…all the updates/software/support are still back behind the firewall.

Mobile OS’s are the complete opposite – they are designed to live on the internet by default. As a result, the way they are implemented is very different. This time it’s something like:

Buy kit
End user activates device over the air
THAT’S IT!!

Windows 10 has changed this.

You can still build it the old way if you want to, but crucially you can also now activate it out of the box just like a mobile OS. Once you do that you can still lock down the machine, apply security policy, deploy apps and much more – all over the air, anytime that the device is connected to the internet.

This is a game changer. It removes a large chunk of time and effort spent looking after the build and support of Windows machines and it’s also a far better end user experience.

It also opens the door to thinking about BYOD for Windows….

If you’ve not looked at this before I’d suggest contacting us for a demo.

28th April 2017
App Updates… Everywhere

Speaking with customers at one of our events this week it became apparent that there is a common issue being faced.

We all agreed that, to drive ROI on the companies Mobile spend, there had to be an App ecosystem available beyond delivering mobile email. However, the challenge for the Enterprise is deciding which Apps are “safe” and therefore allowable on a Corporate device.

Presently we see a lot of customers trying to maintain a whitelist of Apps. Usually this will be based on some form of internal security criteria (i.e. doesn’t connect to social media or access contact info, etc). Apart for the sheer scale of the potential job you’re signing up for (have you seen how many Apps there are???), there are a few items to consider:

App testing takes longer than you think. It can be surprising how deep into the App features can be found.
Be careful of the EULA – many Apps that are free on the App Store are licenced for personal use only
Make sure you’re logged in to see the App working fully and can
monitor where the App is connecting to
You need to test on all OS’s – Apps can be different on Apple vs Android

Unfortunately, there is another “gotcha” that needs to be mentioned and it’s the one that we often see missed:

APPS CAN AND WILL BE UPDATED ALL THE TIME!

You’ve completed your tests and added the App to the whitelist. Everyone has installed it and suddenly there is a new version out… the App now needs testing again.

Every Update to Every App will need testing – your team is going to be kept very busy!

We have solutions to help with this – automated App testing and reputation can completely remove this headache by allowing you to whitelist App behaviour rather than the App itself.

Get in touch if you want to know more….

21st April 2017
Native Windows 10 Data Leakage Prevention (DLP)

All modern mobile operating systems provide organisations with native DLP controls. These controls provide a separation of corporate and personal data on the same device. Android has Android Enterprise (formally Android for Work), iOS has managed apps and since the ‘Anniversary’ update Windows 10 has Windows Information Protection (WIP – formally Enterprise Data Protection or EDP).

WIP data separation is a solution that is easy to deploy and doesn’t get in the way of the user experience. The policies can be configured easily through your existing MDM platform and it works on both Windows 10 Mobile as well as larger mobile devices such as laptops and tablets, running Windows 10.

WIP works in the background so it will work with your organisations existing applications and the policies make sure that only authorised users and apps have access to business data, they can even prevent copy and paste. It will allow users to freely copy content between business apps and documents, but it won’t allow the data to leak into the personal or public domain unless IT chooses to allow it with a policy.

For example, a user could attach a document from a corporate repository to a corporate e-mail account in Outlook, but they would be restricted from uploading it to a personal webmail account or uploading it to Dropbox.

With the latest ‘Creators’ update for Windows 10, expect Microsoft to further enhance these policies.

For a demo or to find out more, get in contact.

13th April 2017
Productivity in the age of the App

In a mobile first world, enterprises are looking to enable their employees to be more productive when away from their desks by providing access to corporate data i.e. intranet, CRM, SAP, etc.

However, if the data has not been formatted for display on a mobile device, the user experience will suffer and the employee is likely to stop using it.

This is the reason why mobile apps are so popular. Apps are designed to be used on mobile devices.

Let’s take a mobile banking app for example, the app allows the user to do most of the quick tasks like check their balance or transfer money, without having to visit a branch and is designed to fit on a mobile phone screen. This is a great user experience and saves time, allowing the user to do other things.

But…

Most companies do not have app development skills internally and having a bespoke app built can be expensive.

This is why we are seeing the rise of rapid app development solutions. These solutions offer pre-built templates with drag and drop functionality, to allow customised, branded mobile apps to be developed in minutes. Using these tools is as simple as using Microsoft PowerPoint, no development experience is necessary.

Contact us to arrange a demo of rapid app development and see how easy it really is.

7th April 2017
Another iOS11 gotcha that’s coming…

Building on the tip last week it’s also worth noting that Apple is killing off support for 32 Bit Applications soon.

As ever we can’t say for sure when this will be, but most likely this will be when iOS11 comes out.

What does that mean?

Up to now any App that’s been written in the past going back to the launch of the iPhone and iPod touch could potentially still be run on a modern device even if the App had not been updated in a long time.

Good news – any App that has been maintained over the years will continue to work fine as the developer will have already updated the App for 32/64 Bit running.

Bad news – there are a LOT of older Apps in the App Store that are going to break soon. These are Apps that are compiled for 32 Bit only.

Am I impacted?

Surprisingly it’s a bit of a pain to check, but here’s how:

On your iOS device click on “Settings” / “General” / “About”. On screen there is a section called Applications.

If you don’t have any Apps that have a problem then you will just see a count of the number of installed Apps.

If you do have an issue then you will have the arrow that indicates you can tap on this section to get to a further screen that lists the Apps that are about to break:

As you can see my fix of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is now under threat. Which is sad, but not the end of the world – I’ve still got a PS2 at home!

However, for enterprise we often see that internal focused apps can be less regularly updated. As such I’d strongly recommend checking to see if you’ve got an imminent issue before it’s too late…

For help with this issue get in contact.

31st March 2017
RIP iPhone 5 and 5C?

As many of you will have noticed there was a new version of iOS released this week. What may have slipped under the radar is that the next Beta of iOS was also made available.

For a while now Apple have been dropping hints that they are not going to support 32-bit hardware and applications for much longer.

Based on the Beta it does appear that iOS 10.3.2 could well be the moment when this happens. Even if Apple change their minds (it is just a Beta at present) then it seems highly likely that iOS 11 will be the end.

If you’re running any iPhone 5, 5C or 4^th generation iPad devices in your estate then it’s time to act. These devices are running on borrowed time!

Given that each iOS release is a mixture of feature enhancements, bug fixes and crucially Security Fixes then you can’t afford to leave these devices in your estate for long once they go to end of life.

Contact us if you want help with evergreening your estate. You may also want to look at one of my earlier tips about reducing the cost of Apple kit by leasing it from Mobliciti.

24th March 2017
To AD or not to AD?

For a while we’ve been banging the drum about how traditional authentication methods (AD password and 2 Factor) don’t really fit well when logging in from the world of mobile.

While the mobile devices move forward with various improvements to this such as fingerprint to unlock, we often find that the enterprise resources that they connect to still prompt for passwords pretty much the same as they have done for years.

Having everyone typing their passwords on a keyboard in the office is clearly not an issue, but on mobile it creates a risk that needs to be tracked:

Simply put, if you’re getting your users to enter their Active Directory password on their mobile devices then you have a problem. That sensitive password is now being entered in public (on a packed train, in a coffee shop, etc) via a touchscreen keyboard….and if that password gets “shoulder surfed” then it’s the same password for everything on AD…

Tip of the week – use something other than the AD password on Mobile!

Contact us if you want help with configuring alternative authentication options for the Mobile estate.

17th March 2017
It’s all about the residuals!

Once upon a time you could buy a mid-tier BlackBerry for £150-£200. This was a good enough device for a large number of users and was considered good value.

As a result, most people didn’t even bother to look at what it was worth at the end of its life (the answer was not a lot) and so I suspect a lot of these devices are still knocking around in drawers & cupboards of the office.

Roll forward to now and everyone is looking at the price of a top-end smartphone and thinking it’s too expensive, compared to the cheap phones of the past it is!

However…

What’s forgotten is that after 2 years that smartphone is still worth a significant portion of its purchase price (especially if it’s been looked after – just look at eBay). Tip number 1 is therefore:

– Get your phones back and your money back on the residual value! You are missing out on a significant chunk of cash if you’re not doing this.

And then if you’re looking to deploy smartphones here is tip number 2:

– Lease the phone from us. For example, on an iPhone you could pay just 80% of the purchase price and we’ll take the phone back at the end and securely deal with getting the residual value back for you.

So, if you fancy saving 20% on your smartphone costs and you want someone to deal with the end of life process for you then give us a call.

And you’ve got 2 tips for the price of one this week – bargain!

10th March 2017
What Problems does Apple’s Device Enrolment Programme (DEP)* solve?

DEP has been around for a while now and we’re finally seeing it as a deployment option from multiple suppliers around the world. DEP is great for Enterprise for several reasons:

1. The devices are Supervised by default – this unlocks a greater level of access for the admin to control the device

2. It streamlines and simplifies the out of box experience for the end user

3. It locks the device to your enterprise. It cannot be used elsewhere without your permission. This controls the End of Life better and allows recovery of the Residual Value

All these are great, but it also controls a risk that often gets overlooked – How do you know the device is in a Trusted State BEFORE it arrives in your environment (think of Jailbreak or malicious Apps installed before activation). Apple is guaranteeing the device is shrink-wrap fresh when it arrives. THIS IS UNIQUE!

To understand more about DEP and how to control this with EMM get in touch.

*DEP provides a fast, streamlined way to deploy your corporate-owned Mac or iOS devices.