Controlling Mobile: Custom Version of Android Restricts Data Access
By Karla Robinson
December 10, 2012
December 10, 2012
- New software for Android built by Boston startup Optio Labs will control what data you can access on your phone based on where you are, who you’re with, and more.
- “You can dream up just about any rule — it can be your GPS location, or an indoor location detection: when you are in this specific room you can use these apps and connect to this data, but the moment you walk out we will delete the data, shut down the apps, prevent you from getting access to them,” says Jules White, Virginia Tech computer scientist and Optio co-founder.
- “The technology’s most unusual trick is its room-specific security and access settings: the phone would only show you sensitive company data — or conversely, block things like e-mail, camera, or texting functions — when in range of a Bluetooth beacon sending a cryptographic tether,” reports Technology Review.
- “Your location in the room (as opposed to a hallway) could be further confirmed through a signal sent via a near-field-communications device — perhaps the one in your boss’s phone, which you’d have to bump to get initial access, depending on the settings.”
- Other businesses, including IBM and AT&T, have explored ways to increase security on company phones by restricting data access based on location or by offering remote data wiping.
- “[Optio Labs’] technology could prevent data from falling into the wrong hands if a device were lost or stolen. It might also help enforce proper-use policies,” the post explains.
- “Blending physical context (such as location) with the context of computing (what network you’re on, what data you’re looking at) is new, says Doug Schmidt, a computer scientist at Vanderbilt University who was a PhD advisor to White but has no financial tie to the company or technology. ‘This approach can enforce policies in specific situations where they make sense — rather than all the time.'”
No Comments Yet
You can be the first to comment!
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.