You really should track your digital devices, at least according to Ken Westin who is the founder of GadgetTrak. I actually agree with that. In fact, I have been using some other services (Prey Project and Find my iPhone) to do just that. It does look like what Ken’s company has come up with in their GadgetTrak service goes quite a bit beyond that. And Ken goes into the importance of preserving your gadget (smartphone and laptop) security and privacy in the latest episode of Digital Nibbles. Appropriately taking place on Pi Day (3.14) – which, also is, coincidentally, Albert Einstein’s birthday, Digital Nibbles #6 covered Mobile Security and the Cloud.
During Ken’s interview with Allyson Klein and Ruv Cohen, they dive deep into some of the security concerns with our modern day gadgets. Some points from this interview:
- Over the past 2 years, 30% of data breaches have come from compromised laptops
- Be cautious as to what you download
- There is a need for resiliency from a security standpoint
- A huge number of laptops & gadgets are stolen or lost at airports every week (1000s actually)
- Jailbreaking or rooting your device can make it less secure if you don’t know what you are doing
I recommend checking out Ken’s company (although I haven’t actually tested it out – the premise and technology that they are using does really seem sound and well thought out).
So why am I writing about this podcast? Well for the last 10 minutes of the show, I discussed the various mobile marketplaces and operating systems that currently exist in the space, and I liken it to parks and gardens so that people understand the concepts in a more “real world” way.
Below is the podcast (which is also available here):
Show timeline:
• 0:00: Introductions, data center/cloud resiliency and security
• 8:30: Interview with Ken Westin, Founder of GadgetTrak
• 18:32: Interview with Michael Sheehan from GoGrid
• 28:38: Wrap up
I’m a big advocate of being sure that your mobile devices and portable electronics are secure and safe, especially in a family environments. So, take some time to research what you can do to make your mobile computing safer and dial up that security. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me on Twitter!
HTD says: How secure is your mobile environment?
