Geekonomics Author May Boost iPhone, iPad Security

Apple has reportedly hired Geekonomics author and former NSA analyst David Rice to increase security for the iPhone and iPad. Rice is well-known in the field of information security, but Apple is typically being tight-lipped about any plans. Beefing up security on the iPhone and iPad is vital to their acceptance in enterprises.

As Apple gains a bigger foothold among business users, the computer giant has reportedly hired former Navy officer and national security analyst David Rice in a likely bid to increase trust in its devices.
Rice, currently executive director of the Monterey Group, a consulting firm, is author of Geekonomics, a study of how software vulnerabilities cause major problems, such as a deadly 1996 plane crash, the massive U.S. power blackout of 2003, the hacking of T-Mobile's servers in 2004, and errors that caused Toyota Priuses to shut down at highway speeds in 2005.
From NSA To Apple
After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1994 and earning his master's degree in information warfare and systems engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School, Rice served as a cryptologic officer for the Navy and global network vulnerability analyst for the National Security Agency.
The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital blog, citing unnamed sources, said Rice is likely to begin working at Apple in March. The company is well-known for secrecy about its products, although a major lapse occurred last year when an iPhone prototype was found in a bar and appeared in the tech media weeks before launch.
True to form, Apple is staying tight-lipped about the hire, neither confirming nor denying it as of Monday afternoon, and the company's spokespersons didn't respond to our request for comment.
Rice is well known in the growing field of information security.
"He has the two characteristics that are most critical to success as a CISO in today's threat environment," Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS computer-security training institute in Bethesda, Md., told us. "He has deep technical knowledge that empowers him to lead technical people, and he is a great teacher."
Mum's the Word
Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT , said it's not surprising that Apple won't comment on the report. "Beyond Apple's historic tendency toward secrecy, vendors tend to be mum on security strategy/issues," he said.
Beefing up security on devices like the iPhone and iPad, which have been hugely popular among consumers, is the key to increasing their growing appeal to businesses with more serious purposes, King added.
"As Apple discovered with the original iPhone, consumer-grade security apps and features simply don't cut it in the enterprise ," King said. "To their credit, Apple and its developers did the necessary work backfilling those shortcomings, and the result has been positive for most everyone involved, except [Research In Motion], of course."
In October, Good Technology, which offers e-mail and security solutions to corporations, reported that Apple devices led the pack among non-BlackBerry device activations using Good's systems from May 1 to Sept. 30.
King said a key challenge for Apple is developing unique security features for the iPad, rather than just duplicating those of the iPhone. "Since many executives who use or want to use the iPad are likely to store critical company and strategy documents in the device, it will require enterprise-class security features analogous to those common on laptops," he said. "Without them and a broader security strategy, Apple's and the iPad's future in business would be limited, at best."