Dual-use: smartphones for work and private use

By Dirk Averesch Feb 5, 2012, 3:06 GMT

Berlin - Nobody enjoys juggling mobile phones, but many are finding they have to in order to keep their work phone separate from their personal phone.

Many employers leave people little choice. There are too many concerns that confidential data might leak out if a person also uses a company smartphone or tablet containing that data for private communication. After all, the devices make tempting targets for internet attack.

But there is hope that the days of juggling could be coming to an end, allowing one device to multitask between private and professional use.

Special software for Mobile Device Management (MDM) allows mobile devices to be centrally controlled, meaning administrators can remotely protect files or install updates. If lost, the device can be remotely locked or have its data wiped. Some even allow users to be monitored or rights to be managed remotely.

Research in Motion (RIM), which makes the Blackberry, has gone a step further, offering the Balance system to companies to allow them to separate private and work life. An administrator determines which apps may be accessed, reviewing everything from the email inbox to the address book.

'Privately installed applications have no access to the professional files. Even copying information from the work area to private applications or emails is impossible,' says RIM.

VMWare presented its solution at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas: a secure, encrypted virtual smartphone for business needs that starts up as an app. Dubbed Horizon Mobile, it is being developed for Android devices.

Germany's Fraunhofer Institute's Centre for Advanced Security Research (SIT) has also come up with a virtual solution for the problem, but chose not to pursue it. 'With virtualization, the battery is drained more quickly. There are also usability problems,' says Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi, who runs the centre's mobile systems department.

Instead, developers at SIT cracked Android open and came up with Bizztrust, which separates business and private functions into two logical containers on the operating system level. 'There can be no information flow between the two areas,' says Sadeghi. 'It doesn't matter if you install a game with a Trojan in the private area,' he adds. The malware cannot make the jump between segments.

And users don't have to worry about storing private details on the phone, because administrators have no access to the personal area, even as they retain full control of the business area, which is connected to the company's infrastructure with an encrypted virtual private network (VPN).

Bizztrust puts a lot of emphasis on user friendliness, says Sadeghi. Users can tell which segment they're in by looking at the background colour. Green denotes business, while red means private. Users can switch between systems with a two-finger flick. Private applications, like games, browsers or even Facebook run without hindrance, but absolutely independently of the firm's VPN.

'Bizztrust supports the most popular Android devices,' says Sadeghi. He says about 150 firms have registered interest in the system, including 20 large ones. 'We never counted on serious interest.'

The new solutions mean companies don't have to think twice about letting employees use their mobile devices for private activities. Several US companies have already implemented Bring Your Own Device policies. Some even sponsor the purchase of private gadgets, figuring that people who enjoy their mobile device and work well with it will be more productive.

And the practice isn't just picking up in the United States. A quarter of German tablet users told a study conducted by consulting firm Accenture they used their mobile device in the office. Almost another quarter of those who said they planned to buy a tablet said they would use it for work.

The numbers are even starker with mobile phones. Another German survey showed that a third of workers use their private mobiles for work. In some cases, it was a must, since only one in every 12 workers said they had a work mobile.