How secure is your business' digital footprint?
There are two types of people in the world: Those who care about privacy, and those who use Google and Facebook.
If you’re looking to secure your business communications, it’s worth looking at both hardware and software solutions to protect you IP.
Part 1: Hardware Laptops, PCs and Smartphones
PCs and Laptops
Again, stay well away from Google. Chromebooks collect a whole lot of data about the way you use its operating system and sends it all back to HQ. This includes web-browsing histories, search-engine results, YouTube viewing habits and saved passwords.
If you do have a Chromebook, and want to lock it down as best as possible there are some handy tips here.
Verdict: Nope, nope nope
Windows machines have vastly improved since the release of Windows 10 – particularly in regard to how the machine intentionally collects your data.
However, given Windows is still the most popular operating system in the world (by a long way!) it remains the primary target for viruses, phishing, Trojans and hackers.
Grab a subscription to AVG, Norton or McAfee and keep it up-to-date. It may not guarantee your machine against whatever nasties lurk in that email from your Russian bride-to-be, but at least you stand a fighting chance.
Verdict: a great balance of cost and security
MacOS (formerly OSX) still reigns supreme for security across mainstream operating systems. So much so that marketing from Apple over the last 20 years has loudly boasted its security and safety record.
The latest iMacs and MacBooks are extremely sensitive to any software that is not delivered by its own App Store, and will ask you to confirm any applications from the web that are looking to launch.
Verdict: the most secure so far – but you’ll pay for it.
For the tinkerers, there is a whole slew of operating system that include multiple kernals to isolate different part of the OS from each other (Tails, Whonix and Kali Linux to name just a couple). While not great in the user experience side, nor particularly friendly to more mainstream OS, for the paranoid these really are the best option.
Verdict: the ultimate security for boffins and tin-foil hat wearers
Phones
Again, the security of phones follows on a similar curve to that of laptops and computers.
Android is now the most widely used smartphone software in the world, and has worked hard to catch up to (and exceed), Apple’s iOS in terms of functionality and user experience.
However, barely a week goes by when we don’t read of another Android vulnerability – be it in the operating system, or as a result of some dodgy app downloaded from the Google Play store.
Verdict: avoid if possible
Windows Mobile has pretty much gone the way of the dodo (the bird) and the Blackberry (the phone). Hand one of these to an employee and watch them raise not one, not two, but perhaps three eyebrows.
Verdict: avoid for improved staff morale
Again, Apple takes the prize. For eight years iPhones have proved almost impervious to hackers (the Celebgate controversy was the result of lazy passwords and phishing, not software failures).
Apple uses secure tokens to protect your data – whether it is mail-in-transit, Apple Pay or the health app. No data is collected and stored by Apple and, as the recent Sandy Hook investigations showed, Apple has neither the ability or desire to unlock a customer’s phone.
Verdict: Criticised for being a homogenous walled garden, the pay-off is that iPhone remains the most secure phone available.