Worthing and Adur councillors to get iPads (From The Argus)

As the iPad can't be encrypted then they shouldn't be used for council business regardless of price. Can't wait for the first story to appear about a councillor losing an iPad and the contents being published in the press !!!!! As usual, local council employees and councillors jumping on the bandwagon without understanding the risks.

Fight_Back wrote:
As the iPad can't be encrypted then they shouldn't be used for council business regardless of price. Can't wait for the first story to appear about a councillor losing an iPad and the contents being published in the press !!!!! As usual, local council employees and councillors jumping on the bandwagon without understanding the risks.

sorry - this is not quite true. We use them at work and they can be passwordprotected. Not only that each PDF can be password protected and encrypted. Finally the IT guys have a remote wipe tool in event of loss

All protection is breakable if a person is both skilled and determined enough but to say an ipad cannot be protected isnt really true

Why? when care services are being cut and we are all being told to tighten our belts should taxpayer's money be squandered on ipads - I'm sure most councillors, with their featherbedded expense accounts, could afford to buy their own. I suppose they all voted for this perk without asking taxpayers for their comments / permission first. It seems to me that if you are in government, be it local or national, those in power take the rest of us for idiots who are prepared to allow the criminal misuse of public money.

Spanners wrote:

Fight_Back wrote:
As the iPad can't be encrypted then they shouldn't be used for council business regardless of price. Can't wait for the first story to appear about a councillor losing an iPad and the contents being published in the press !!!!! As usual, local council employees and councillors jumping on the bandwagon without understanding the risks.

sorry - this is not quite true. We use them at work and they can be passwordprotected. Not only that each PDF can be password protected and encrypted. Finally the IT guys have a remote wipe tool in event of loss

All protection is breakable if a person is both skilled and determined enough but to say an ipad cannot be protected isnt really true

The point is that the hard disk of an iPad can't be encrypted like a PC one. This means it's very easy to remove data from, even if the device itself is password protected.

These devices will hold council data and that data should be protected to government guidelines and that means encryption for mobile devices.

Fight_Back wrote:

Spanners wrote:

Fight_Back wrote: As the iPad can't be encrypted then they shouldn't be used for council business regardless of price. Can't wait for the first story to appear about a councillor losing an iPad and the contents being published in the press !!!!! As usual, local council employees and councillors jumping on the bandwagon without understanding the risks.

sorry - this is not quite true. We use them at work and they can be passwordprotected. Not only that each PDF can be password protected and encrypted. Finally the IT guys have a remote wipe tool in event of loss All protection is breakable if a person is both skilled and determined enough but to say an ipad cannot be protected isnt really true

The point is that the hard disk of an iPad can't be encrypted like a PC one. This means it's very easy to remove data from, even if the device itself is password protected. These devices will hold council data and that data should be protected to government guidelines and that means encryption for mobile devices.

you are half right - the hard drive cant be encrypted wholesale but each document can be both encrypted and password protected. On top of password protection for the device itself

Spanners wrote:

Fight_Back wrote:

Spanners wrote:

Fight_Back wrote: As the iPad can't be encrypted then they shouldn't be used for council business regardless of price. Can't wait for the first story to appear about a councillor losing an iPad and the contents being published in the press !!!!! As usual, local council employees and councillors jumping on the bandwagon without understanding the risks.

sorry - this is not quite true. We use them at work and they can be passwordprotected. Not only that each PDF can be password protected and encrypted. Finally the IT guys have a remote wipe tool in event of loss All protection is breakable if a person is both skilled and determined enough but to say an ipad cannot be protected isnt really true

The point is that the hard disk of an iPad can't be encrypted like a PC one. This means it's very easy to remove data from, even if the device itself is password protected. These devices will hold council data and that data should be protected to government guidelines and that means encryption for mobile devices.

you are half right - the hard drive cant be encrypted wholesale but each document can be both encrypted and password protected. On top of password protection for the device itself

Quite possibly but do you really think EVERY councillor will encrypt and password protect EVERY document they hold on their iPad ?

I've already written a headline for 6 months in the future. "Councillor suspended for downloading **** during council meetings"

rfairweather@tiscali
.co.uk wrote:
Why? when care services are being cut and we are all being told to tighten our belts should taxpayer's money be squandered on ipads - I'm sure most councillors, with their featherbedded expense accounts, could afford to buy their own. I suppose they all voted for this perk without asking taxpayers for their comments / permission first. It seems to me that if you are in government, be it local or national, those in power take the rest of us for idiots who are prepared to allow the criminal misuse of public money.

Per article "A decision will be made at the council’s joint strategic committee in Worthing Town Hall on Thursday."

So not done and dusted........though I'm sure it will!

However, it would have been useful to have the statistics on how much paper is being used on an annual basis and at what cost in order to see how long it'd take for the savings benefit to kick in.

Don’t agree with this. Cheaper alternatives are available that have more features than the IPAD. Again the local council wasting money!

Don't they all have computers at our expense already?

Clueless as always. I bet they haven't even discussed this with their IT department because they would advise them it's a bad idea & will be more expensive not cheaper. We had similar issues in our company, but being the IT department we are, we said no. They aren't secure (the encryption isn't proper encryption). The remote wipe would require 3G (more expense) if it's just over the net then it will stay off the grind, be jail broken and the remote wipe deactivated. Wrapping it in tin foil then removing the 3G SIM would stop a 3G remote wipe. The software it would require to manage the devices would also need to be taken into account on price. They don't like Windows domains, can't be easily managed, can't be easily audited and being popular are a big target for theft.

If they are locked down, expect a councillor to complain they want it unlocked. Guarantee they won't just use them for council work.

If it's just for meetings a cheaper notebook would do. Not only that but surely they already have IT kit, laptops which they can view the 200 page PDFs on.

Some people just want toys to play with and to **** away £20k yet still getting rid of staff.

I would like to see what analysis the council has done to asess it is "saving money" -I'm positive it is flimsy and innacurate at best! As for Sarah Gobey claiming it is "important to have access to new technology"...on what basis is it important?? I wonder how many pot holes fixed or meals for the homeless £20000 would allow...
It boils down to the age old problem that spending other people's money is easy. The council doesnt care, who can make them? The councillors? Talk about turkeys voting for christmas...