“We need to think about what our response should be to the mobile device transition”, Bavisi said. “We need devices without anti-virus. People want simplicity and usability - if we have to install AV, it can drain battery power.” The solution, Bavisi argued, is to stop worrying about controlling devices and focus on controlling the data. “We need to focus on data protection.”
While Bavisi remembers a time where “we knew we needed firewalls”, he considers that now, “the industry has to change. The common people should no longer have firewalls”.
“The CD Rom is gone, the Ethernet cable is gone, the hard disk is gone (having been replaced by the cloud). The transformation is happening – it’s a new era”. This has brought new challenges and requires a new direction, Bavisi said. “Yes, the threats will continue, so we need the solutions to adapt.”
The iPhone was the catalyst for this change, recalled Bavisi. “The iPhone changed the definition of a computer. To me, a desktop was a computer. To my ten-year-old, a laptop was a computer. To my three-year-old, an iPad is a computer.”
Referring to Microsoft’s Office Vision video - microsoft.com/office/vision/ - which he showed to open his presentation - Bavisi referred to a future where computers will be in our glasses and in our fridges. “What the video showed is already here, it’s happening. Technology is readily available – you can make a cyber-weapon for $35”, he said.
“As we move into the post-PC era, control will be out of our eco-system. Companies will find it harder to lock down devices – especially those that are employee owned – due to their connectivity to other devices.” Users, he said, are trading their security rights to vendors. “Security is no longer in our hands.”
Social networking, Bavisi argued, means that hacking the human is the easiest attack vector in the post-PC era. “Phishing scans will continue to be a problem, and as for privacy…What privacy? Everyone is voluntarily giving their information to everyone. We talk about privacy, but we tweet what we eat. We say ‘get out of my space’ but there is no space”, he concluded.