There’s two important pieces of news this week, plus an update on the Apple iPad:
(1) BT workers are to be balloted on strike action.
If you are reliant on the internet for cloud computing applications, accessing other websites or just for email, would the loss of your internet connection be a body blow?
Here in Maidenhead a couple of years ago, someone vandalized a section of BT cabling serving several hundred homes and businesses. For several days no-one in the area could make land-line phone calls, automatically authorize card payments, or access the internet through BT. A strike may have the same effects.
Fortunately I have a 3G dongle which I use when away from base, and BT diverted incoming calls to my mobile, so the landline loss was little more than a nuisance. But what about all the internet-enabled devices in your business or home?
Larger organisations will have their own redundancy solutions (though I’ve seen several go without internet access for hours if not days). For smaller installations it is worth considering broadband routers that have a 3G service in-built. Here’s an example from Billion where they say “The auto fail-over feature ensures maximum connectivity and minimum interruption by quickly and smoothly connecting to a 3G network in the event that your ADSL line fails.” It’s available from places like Maplins. Not cheap, but worth it?
(2) Viruses for Smartphones?
PCW recently reported that a few of the new Samsung Wave smartphones had been shipped with a computer trojan virus pre-loaded onto the microSD card. Connecting the phone to a PC using auto-run would allow the trojan to attempt to infect the PC. Copying the file would potentially pass it on to other PCs.
It’s a stark reminder that it’s not only PCs that are vulnerable, even if the devices only act as a carrier, as with the Wave.
It’s also worth remembering that the Apple Mac is virtually immune from viruses and other threats (though can never protect from phishing and other threats that don’t take place on the device itself). Apple says "The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box". Norton onetheless sell an anti-virus solution for the Mac, principally to avoid passing on infected files to PC users like with the Wave (the term "dual protection" only refers to getting a copy of the Windows version in case you are running both Windows and Apple OS X on the same machine ). Other companies also provide Mac anti-virus, and here's a useful round-up of Mac security risks and protection.
With strong security solutions readily available, could someone tell me why the world puts up with Windows vulnerability?
(3) A little more on the iPad
By the way, when the iPad was first announced, the Apple website said that the "mobileme" service would allow you to remotely wipe everything from your iPad instantly in the event of theft or loss (provided presumably it’s switched on and accessing the internet). This is similar to the "mobileme" service for iPhone.
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