IPads in the White House!?

Here is an interesting development reported by the Washington Post. Is this a good idea, a bad idea, safe (from an information security perspective)? (Remember that there have been massive breaches and data loss BEFORE this switchover started so how secure and safe were the old and less cool devices.)

"Analysts and government officials say the demand for consumer technologies is coming from two directions. At the top, agency directors and senior officials are using iPads, Android phones or Web-based e-mail in their personal lives and asking IT administrators why they can’t use them at work. But the bigger push is coming from frontline workers, who see the value consumer technology could add to their working life, making them more mobile and less tied to an office.

“People have better access to information technology at their homes than they do at work, and that’s especially true in the public sector,” said Vivek Kundra, the federal government’s chief information officer. “If you look at the average school kid, he or she probably has better technology in his or her backpack than most of us do in government offices.”

And employees are no longer taking no for an answer. A recent Forrester Research study showed 35 percent of workers in the United States either buy their own smartphone for work, use unsanctioned Web sites or download unapproved applications on a work computer. Why? Twenty four percent of do-it-yourselfers say the technology is better than what their job provides. Thirty-six percent say they need it, and their employer won’t provide an alternative. And nearly 40 percent say they use it at home and, well, they want it at work, too."

Now the feds also need to implement ID theft awareness certification for their employees like we provide.

Steffen Schmidt