Apple iCloud's Security Challenge

Memo to tech departments that were caught flat-footed when people started bringing their iPhones to work: You'd better get ready for the iCloud.
As with the original iPhone, it's easy to see why a lot of workers would want to use the iCloud for both personal and professional use. Let's say you've been working on a presentation all day and you want to bring it home to edit. Instead of doing so the old-fashioned way -- i.e., lugging your company laptop home with you, e-mailing it to yourself or putting it on a flash drive -- you'll soon be able to have it pushed out automatically to all of your iCloud-capable devices, meaning that it will be ready for you on your iPad when you get home.
"iCloud treats the PC as just another device now," says Patrick Wheeler, a senior product marketing manager for endpoint security at Trend Micro. "It becomes just another thing from which you may be accessing data, so it can let users be productive and access business documents on any of their devices."
ANALYSIS: The Apple iCloud: Three things you need to know
But as with any new technology, there are big risks involved with iCloud since users could potentially upload sensitive corporate data onto the cloud and have it spread to devices that do not have corporate security protocols. And while this risk is present in just about any cloud solution, Wheeler notes that the iCloud's ability to automatically push out data to multiple devices makes it an even riskier proposition for most business users.
"iCloud really automates the whole process," he says. "You used to make a conscious decision to connect to a cloud service but now it becomes a much more automated decision."
So what's a wary IT department to do in the face of such risks? Well, the first step is to simply acknowledge that you will have to deal with the iCloud in the near future. Tim Roddy, a senior director of product marketing for McAfee, says that cloud services in general have been gathering steam over the past two years and will soon be a staple of the IT landscape.
"Organizations are using the cloud more and more," he says. "Right now it has unstoppable momentum."
As far as specific solutions to securing your data on iCloud or any other cloud services, both Roddy and Wheeler recommend investing in data loss prevention (DLP) software that lets IT departments define what information can and cannot be uploaded from company devices onto the iCloud.
"DLP typically puts rules in place to better identify content," Roddy says. "The software tries to identify patterns for information that you don't want to be leaked out, such as Social Security numbers or documents marked 'Confidential.' But basically the organization sets the rules up and that takes the burden off the end user."
Wheeler thinks that IT departments would also be smart to look at desktop virtualization services that could be used as the primary means to give users access to corporate data. With a virtual desktop interface, users would be getting sensitive data sent to them from a remote central server that can effectively wall off that data from being accessed by other parts of the device and could erase the data from the device once it is no longer being used.
"If you have a virtual desktop you can get access to the data you need, then when that virtual desktop session is over it will disappear from the device and won't get backed up to the cloud," he says. "Taking advantage of application and desktop virtualization is definitely worth looking into."
Of course, Wheeler also notes that none of this software will help you out much if you don't educate your users about what they can and can't put on any device that automatically uploads certain files to the cloud. This will be particularly important with iCloud, he says, since it makes the process of pushing things to the cloud so easy.
"You have to let users know that if their camera roll updates automatically to the cloud then they can't take a picture of a whiteboard with next year's business plan written on it," he says. "Hackers know there is going to be a lot of sensitive data stored in the cloud."

iCloud’s real purpose: kill Windows (Apple for microsoft)

Apple’s announcements about OS X 10.7 pricing (cheap), upgrading (easy), iOS 5, and iCloud storage, syncing, and media service can all be viewed as increasing ease of use, but from the perspective of Apple CEO Steve Jobs they perform an even more vital function — killing Microsoft.
Here is the money line from Jobs yesterday: “We’re going to demote the PC and the Mac to just be a device – just like an iPad, an iPhone or an iPod Touch. We’re going to move the hub of your digital life to the cloud.”
Just like they used to say at Sun Microsystems, the network is the computer. Or we could go even further and say our data is the computer.
This redefines digital incumbency. The incumbent platform today is Windows because it is in Windows machines that nearly all of our data and our ability to use that data have been trapped. But the Apple announcement changes all that. Suddenly the competition isn’t about platforms at all, but about data, with that data being crunched on a variety of platforms through the use of cheap downloaded apps.
What this requires from Apple is a bold move that Microsoft would never make: Jobs is going to sacrifice the Macintosh in order to kill Windows. He isn’t beating Windows, he’s making Windows inconsequential.
Having been shown the way by Apple, I expect Google to shortly do the same thing, adding automated backup, synchronization and migration to Android and Chrome.
Both companies will be grabbing for data, claiming territory, and leaving Microsoft alone to defend a desktop that will soon cease to exist.
And what happens once all our data is in that iCloud, is there any easy way to get it back out? Nope. It’s in there forever and we are captive customers — trapped more completely than Microsoft ever imagined.
Apple and Google will compete like crazy for our data because once they have it we’ll be their customers forever.
This transition will take at most two hardware generations and we’re talking mobile generations, which means three years, total.
With no mobile market share to speak of and Windows 8 not due until 2013, Microsoft is likely to be too late to the party, with much of Redmond’s market cap transplanted eventually to Apple and Google.
Some will say this is unlikely because of Microsoft’s grip on enterprise sales, but consumers have been leading the IT market for the last decade and the mobile transition will only accelerate this trend.
The quicker Microsoft can turn itself into IBM the better for Redmond, because that appears to be their only chance.

Apple sued over its use of iCloud name by iCloud Communications

Apple has been sued by Phoenix-based iCloud Communications for its use of the name iCloud for its new cloud-based file storage services.
The lawsuit, filed last week in an Arizona U.S. District Court, argues that Apple's use of iCloud is trademark infringement on the name of iCloud, a VoIP (Internet phone service) and cloud services company founded in 2005.
Apple has so far used the iCloud name to identify its services for consumers looking to store music, photos, video, emails and other types of data in remote servers that they access over the Web -- or from the cloud, as the tech industry calls it.
The company also says in its suit that Apple knew that iCloud Communications held the trademark on the iCloud name, but used it anyway and in doing so, has hurt its use of the name.
"Due to the worldwide media coverage given to and generated by Apple's announcement of its 'iCloud' services and the ensuing saturation advertising campaign pursued by Apple, the media and the general public have quickly come to associate the mark 'iCloud' with Apple, rather than iCloud Communications," the Internet calling firm said in its complaint. "At the time Apple elected to adopt 'iCloud' for its cloud computing telecommunications and data services, Apple was aware of or was willfully blind to iCloud Communications' use of and rights in the iCloud Marks."
Apple officials were unavailable for comment on the suit on Tuesday. But, as iCloud argues in its suit, troubles over trademark infringement for Apple are nothing new when it comes to product names.
"Although Apple aggressively protects its trademark rights, Apple has a long and well known history of knowingly and willfully treading on the trademark rights of others -- a history which began as early as the 1970s when Apple was first sued for trademark infringement by the Beatles record label, Apple Corp.," iCloud says in its suit.
The complaint also points out that Apple's use of the names Macintosh computer, Mighty Mouse, iPhone and iAd were each met with trademark infringement suits from other companies who've used those respective names for products of their own.
Apple's use of the iCloud name has already led to a lot of confusion for iCloud Communications, which is hurting its business, the company said in its suit.
"In fact, iCloud Communications has received numerous inquiries from both existing and prospective customers regarding whether it is now owned or affiliated with Apple," iCloud said in the court document. "The loss of and damage to the goodwill in the iCloud Marks, the damage to iCloud Communication's reputation and confusion among consumers is likely to continue -- and, in fact, intensify -- unless Apple is enjoined from its use of the mark 'iCloud.'"
The suit calls for Apple to "deliver for destruction all labels, signs, prints, insignia, letterhead, brochures, business cards, invoices and any other written or recorded material or advertisements in its possession or control containing the iCloud name," as well as unspecified payment for damages and any profits Apple makes from its iCloud offerings.