Title: Mobile and Portable Systems
Course: IN 2001 Principle of Information Assurance > Section: Module 9: Chapter Nine

Mobile and Portable Systems
1. Although the physical security associated with mobile and portable solutions substantially overlaps other security areas, these solutions are important enough to warrant additional mention.
2. With the increased threat to overall information security for laptops, handhelds, and PDAs, mobile computing requires even more security than the average in-house system.
3. Many of these mobile computing systems not only have corporate information stored within them, but they are also configured to facilitate the user’s access into the organization’s secure computing facilities.
4. New technology to support the location of lost or stolen laptops can provide additional security.  The first type of new technology is called CompuTrace.
5. CompuTrace, which is software that reports itself and the electronic serial number of the laptop on which it is installed to a central monitoring center.
6. Also available for laptops are burglar alarms made up of a PC card that contains a motion detector.
7. If the alarm in the laptop is armed and the laptop is moved beyond a configured distance, the alarm triggers an audible alarm.
8. The system also shuts down the computer and includes an encryption option to completely render the information unusable.
9. For maximum security, laptops should be secured at all times.  If you are traveling with a laptop, you should have it in your possession at all times.

Remote Computing Security
1. Remote site computing, which includes a wide variety of computing sites that are distant from the base organizational facility and it includes the entire spectrum of telecommuters (or telecomputers).
2. Telecommuting involves computing using telecommunications facilities that encompass connections over the Internet, connections using dial-up and connections over leased point-to-point links between offices.
3. Employees may need to access home networks on business trips, telecommuters need access from home systems, and some organizations even have satellite offices that need to be tightly integrated into the overall IT infrastructure.
4. Individuals telecommuting from home deserve special attention.  As more individuals consider telecommuting, the risk to organizational information through these often-unsecured connections is substantial.
5. Few organizations provide their employees with secure connections to their office networks and even fewer provide secure systems should the employee’s home computer be compromised.
6. To provide a secure extension of the organization’s internal networks, all external connections and systems must be secured.  Although it is possible to secure remote sites, organizations cannot assume the employees invest their own funds for security.