Apple iOS 7 – a Significant Step Forward in Security

Before the announcement of iOS 7 at WWDC held by Apple, everyone was waiting for it very eagerly. Even I was also excited about its announcement and dying to know the features added by Apple in this version of its iOS. However, what I was also curious to know was how much attention this company has paid in securing this iOS. Ever since its announcement, I have been studying rigorously about this and finally started to write this article. From all that I have researched so far about iOS 7, I feel that this is a significant step forward. To get more insight about the same, I contacted my distant relative working with Gartner. Here is what she stated about the security features of iOS 7.

She said that close sources of Gartner have informed that Apple will be launching iOS 7 along with a new device in the global market on September 10th, 2013. While it has something for everyone, the business segment has not been left out at all. Probably, apple boardroom already realized that BYOD and cloud computing will witness rise in the future which are facing denigration across the globe for being weaker in terms of security. Therefore, the designers have made this iOS far more secure than the last one. Numerous security features would help business owners in running their businesses securely and most importantly, transmit their confidential data with full trust. In this version of iOS 7, Apple has introduced single sign-in, background processing, and per-app-VPN for business owners to cooperate with the Mobile Device Management (MDM) system and influence the management process of iOS based devices. 

What I have observed is that today, most devices are either managed by limited policies (device wipe, password enforcement) or containers where users are asked to sign in to access business related apps and images where the entire disk was managed through a single console. BlackBerry came and introduced "managed communities". They assume that enterprise apps start-off in the user realm, but can join at the user's option; an enterprise community is governed by an MDM tool. Upon becoming members, they can be permitted or denied privileges to work with other application members of the community. This notion can be seen clearly in the BlackBerry 10, which has BlackBerry Balance. The approach visible in the design of iOS 7 looks inspired by the concept of managed community.

What this does is that it separates all the enterprise apps from other apps but at the same time, does not make users to logon to the container to access enterprise apps. Both, the general apps as well as business apps are available to work on, in the same way however, enterprise apps are monitored and governed by highly advanced policies and MDM tools. 

Another feature of the iOS 7 states that when attachments are opened, the file to be viewed must be copied into the sandbox area, which is under the control of a reading application. This flow of confidential and sensitive data from a secured channel to an insecure channel was troubling Apple users till now. The new security features of iOS will prevent this from occurring.

CONCLUSION

These security features are just the tip of what I feel is huge iceberg. As we come closer to the launch date, the wait for it appears like endless. Once it is released, I will come back with another write-up covering all the security features on iOS 7. Until then, my advice to enterprises is to go for Apple based devices and take full advantage of their security features.