How to secure iPads for corporate use

When Apple's iOS 4.2 debuts next month, it will offer enough features to make the iPad tablet a device that's safe for business if IT security teams take the right steps. 

Top among these additions is encrypting stored e-mails and attachments on the devices, says Andrew Jaquith, an analyst with Forrester Research.  
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"We expect Apple's new hardware-assisted cryptosystem to enable encrypted data to stay encrypted, even if the phone itself has been jailbroken or compromised in a side-channel attack," Jaquith says in his report "Apple's iPhone and iPad: Secure Enough For Business?"

Also, mobile device management adds APIs that support third-party applications that can lock or wipe clean iPads believed to be compromised, he says. These APIs also support remote inventorying of the devices and password management by third-party applications, he says.

Corporate security policy installation can also be supported through the APIs, but there is no Apple management platform suitable for corporate use, Jaquith says. However, vendors such as Mobile Iron, Odyssey and Tangoe all have privileged access to Apple's APIs that may give them a leg up on developing such tools.

In combination with other security already supportable on the devices, iPads should be safely deployable and manageable within enterprise networks, he says.


more @ http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/102210-ipad-corporate-security.html