Legal Research

iPhone Already Revealing Security Risks

By Omar Ha-Redeye

If you check out Steve Matthews‘ great post today, Web Law Predictions for 2010, there is one that is already starting to stand out:

I?ll go out on a limb, and predict that 2010 will be the year a law firm somewhere will declare smart phones to be a security risk, jamming transmission internally or banning usage from inside the firm.

The ABA Journal recently noted concerns raised by Sharon Nelson and John Simek of Sensei Enterprises about the use of iPhones by lawyers.  The major issue is that handheld device takes screenshots of documents in order to provide its trademark zoom and click functions.  The problem is that these screenshots may contain confidential client information.

Jonathan Zdziarski, an iPhone hacker and data-forensics expert, explains in this video how to break the iPhone’s passcode lock, which would then allow access to all the confidential information.

Nelson observes that some firms are already taking proactive measures,

Apparently, one mid-sized law firm (50 plus lawyers) took the article very seriously. The firm has cut off all access to the MS Exchange Server for iPhones. Lawyers who have iPhone are being required to get BlackBerrys.
[emphasis added]

Check out the complete paper by Nelson and Simek on the subject, Why Lawyers Shouldn?t Use The iPhone: A Security Nightmare.  Their 2006 book written with the ABA, Information security for lawyers and law firms, may also be of general interest.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on December 20, 2009 (boomark / email).