NitroDesk

How to work with Tasks in Touchdown

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We love the task Function on Touchdown.  Whether you use your Android Phone or Tablet, the Tasks Functionality of Touchdown keeps you organized and makes sure that you have dotted all your “I’s” and crossed all your “T’s.” Features related to tasks include the ability to set reminders, priority levels, privacy levels, and to categorize tasks. The main task screen will show you which tasks have been completed and which are still outstanding (I love that part.)  Outstanding tasks will also show up on the main home screen of TouchDown.

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Here is a brief synopsis of Filter, Sort and Refresh:
FILTER
The Filter function helps you organize your Task list.
You can filter by Folder, Category or even by the following statuses:
All, Completed, Pending, Overdue, Active, Due Today, Next Seven Days, No Due Date, With Due Date,  AND Today and Overdue.
Phew!  Choose your favorite way of filtering !
SORT
allows you to sort your Tasks in the list by:
None, Category (ascending), Category (descending), Subject (ascending), Subject (descending), Start Date (ascending), Start Date (descending), Due (Ascending), Importance (ascending), and Importance (descending)
You can choose up to three options at once.
(I use category and subject the most.)
REFRESH
removes all Tasks from the TouchDown Task list and repopulates the list with the Tasks from server. However, A Refresh will permanently delete
changes made on the device if they have not yet synced to the server and repopulates with only the data that is available on the server. (This is different

from a Sync command in that a Sync will check the server for changes and also report changes made from the device to the server)

MAIN FUNCTIONS
Along the top of an open task, you have simple controls that allow you to cycle through tasks using forward and back arrows, change the status of a task, categorize the task view with the palette button, or to delete or add a new task.  In the individual task view you can see a summary of the due dates, status, privacy, importance, etc.  Along the bottom, any notes will display that you have associated with the task.

Using Astrid and worried that you won’t have it any longer come August 5th when it gets shut down?  We’ll help you 🙂

Encrypted Email in TouchDown

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More and more people are using encrypted email as news about the NSA watching our email and hackers stealing our personal information loom large.  We take the encryption and security of your information very seriously here at NitroDesk, which is why our TouchDown email app uses AES-256 encryption.

SSL and TLS are the main tools that provide the majority of security in the transmission of data over the Internet today. Although these are cited as being “secure,” there is actually quite a range in the level of security that is provided, depending on what encryption technique or cipher is utilized. Like any software, some of these encryption tools are quite weak, while others are very secure.

When choosing an encryption tool for TouchDown, AES  (Advanced Encryption Standard) was the clear and obvious choice for its speed and high level of security. It is based on the Rijndael cipher developed by Belgian cryptographers,  Vincent Rijmen and Joann Daemen.   AES was standardized in 2001 after a 5 year review, and is currently one of the most popular algorithms used in symmetric key cryptography (which, for example, is used for the actual data transmission in SSL and TLS.)   It is also the “gold standard” encryption technique; many security-conscious organizations require that their employees use AES-256 (256-bit AES) for all communications.

AES is based on a design principle known as a substitution-permutation network, and is considered one of the faster encryption methods.  AES is a variant of Rijndael which has a fixed block size of 128 bits, and a key size of 128, 192, or 256 bits. AES was first available in Open SSL starting in 2002, and was the basis of most SSL services in UNIX and Linux environments.    AES is FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) certified.

At NitroDesk we recommend ensuring that your server is SSL-enabled, and never accessible through non-SSL connections. TouchDown utilizes HTTPS/SSL for communications with the server when the server is configured for SSL encryption, and utilizes AES-256. This ensures that your information cannot be compromised in transit between your device and the server.  Is your information secure on your device?

More on mobile security and secure email

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More interesting data from http://www.secnap.com/support/whitepapers/laptop-loss-costs.html indicates laptop security needs to be taken seriously.

In a recent Ponemon study, participating organizations reported that in a 12-month period 86,455 laptops were lost or otherwise went missing. In another study, 53 percent of surveyed mobile professionals carry confidential company information, 65% of those who carry it don’t take steps to protect it.

According to an earlier Ponemon Institute study (conducted independently and sponsored by Intel), The Cost of a Lost Laptop, the average value of a lost laptop is a staggering $49,246.  And what is the cost to YOU if either your  personal information is stole or if you are the one who loses your corporations sensitive data?

Secnap.com reported some interesting findings from The Billion Dollar Lost Laptop Problem report:

  • Out of the 263 laptops per organization that are lost or go missing, on average just 12 laptops were recovered.
  • Forty-three percent of laptops were lost off-site (working from a home office or hotel room); 33 percent lost in transit or travel; and 12 percent were lost in the workplace.
  • Twelve percent of organizations said they don’t know where employees or contractors lose their laptops.
  • Although 46 percent of the lost systems contained confidential data, 30 percent of laptops lost had disc encryption, 29 percent had backup, and just 10 percent had other anti-theft features.
  • Industries that experience the highest rate of laptop loss are education and research; health and pharmaceuticals were next, followed by the public sector. Financial services firms had the lowest loss rate.
  • Laptops with the most sensitive and confidential data are the most likely to be stolen. However, these laptops are also more likely to have disc encryption.

Or take an incident that happened last year, when a worker from Boston Children’s Hospital went to Argentina and had her Laptop stolen at a conference. The laptop was password-protected but not encrypted. A file containing patient information had been sent to the laptop as an email attachment. Even though the file was not saved to the laptop’s hard drive, it was still on the laptop as an email attachment at the time of the theft, exposing over 2000 patient’s medical information. Is your email secure?

How do you protect your data on your laptop?  What is your security plan if it is stolen?