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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:ARW) announced today that the company has acquired Global Link Technology, Inc. (“Global Link”), a provider of electronics asset disposition (EAD) services.
Global Link offers a number of EAD services including data removal, data security, refurbishment, and remarketing of electronic assets, while ensuring compliance with local and national data security and environmental regulations. Headquartered in Centennial, Colorado, Global Link has approximately 30 employees.
“The acquisition of Global Link complements our industry-leading portfolio of electronics asset disposition services, as well as strengthens Arrow’s EAD presence in the Rocky Mountain region,” said Paul J. Reilly, executive vice president, finance and operations, and chief financial officer of Arrow Electronics.
Arrow Electronics (www.arrow.com) is a global provider of products, services, and solutions to industrial and commercial users of electronic components and enterprise computing solutions. Arrow serves as a supply channel partner for more than 120,000 original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers, and commercial customers through a global network of more than 390 locations in 53 countries.
Frank: interesting point that your personal device will have corporate information on it when you dispose of it. Seems like a no-brainer, but it caught my interest. I noticed that Arrow just acquired an EAD company that provides the kind of data-wiping services you mentioned. That has to be key in any EAD business–even better, if one distributor sells and then can reclaim the same device. But it helps to know that data-wiping is part of the whole EAD solution.
I totally agree with the article. Many of us busy people read company emails on phones. That's dangerous leak if the phone is lost. Some recent articles report that quite a number of malware are from Android apps. These are like worms which keep on digging for your personal data. Watch out !
True Alxe, we use our phones to do all the work mainly rather than using it to make calls. Thats wherethe hackers come into play where they can insert small apps which can harm the data of your phone. Its our duty to use oit wisely on the sites or apps we know. Do not click on things which looks suspicious or which you do not know.
And for messaging, we tend to use those like whatsapp all the time. In a way all of our important conversations are already stored on their server.
I like this article, addressed some of contemporary issues regarding security of mobile devices. How about IPv6 auto-configuration and IP renumbering in mobile devices? And more importantly malware/worm works unaware or without the knowledge of mobile users, a big problem. I think users have little or no power to effect the change unless you go for a more or bettter security featured mobile devices, i think.
With so many:
– personal gadgets being used for work
– people working flexibly from home offices
– people in 24/7 contact for work support
it is nigh on impossible to keep a clear delineation between work and personal data. I am sorry I have no idea how to fix it except to say I hope that common sense prevails.
@WB: I totally agree with the point, because people in a such way, have achieved some knowledge in how to manage security risks for their PC/Laptop, but for mobile devices, risks that are coming (and will come) represent a new horizon to explore and investigate, including for myself.
In my opinion this is a tricky problem which cannot be solved by legal framework, or common sense or by just wiping out the data.
You won't exactly know when your smart device becomes vulnerable to data sealing, physical stealing.
This problem has to be tackled technically.
A way to protect the sensitive official data on your smart device could be to have it sored in encrypted manner on your local storage all the time. To be able to read that data at any time from your local device you must be required to obtain the decryption key from your authority ( for every access) which will verify your credentials before issuing you the key.
This is similar to those one time passwords that the net banking systems issue to you for each on line transaction
Matteo, I wish I could agree we understand the risks involved. I have two old PCs at home I want to throw out but must confess that I haven't thought much about how to secure the personal data on them. I have copied my hard drives to make sure I can still access the data but haven't spent time on making sure they don't get into the wrong hands. I guess, like many other people, I expect the reclamation centers to do this!
Of course, companies do a better job — we hope. The reality is, though, that even a supposedly “wiped” hard drive can be salvaged and the data on it restored by IT experts determined to do so. It may cost a bundle but the technology exits.
I plan to open up those two PCs, take out the hard drives and crush them!
@PD, yeah more technical orientation might be another strategy but dont you think mobile device users' behaviours and attitude could be another factor to help improving the situation. How many users would be ready and/or have the capability of going through such a high -level of encryption and decryption process on every single access? Though, corporate organization has the responsibility to enusure proactiveness of its access management team 24/7.
Well Bolaji, at the end, we could assume a new fascinating scenario is coming. Not to say I have a crystall ball, but I am feeling one of the most important business in the future will be about mobile data storage and in a such way mobile cloud is a good for hitting the target !
I've thought about what can enterprises do to use BYOD policies but to also have enough data protection. How about having specific “app stores” for those devices? I'm sure Apple is more than willing to create IBM iTunes Store with pre-paid apps that any employee can download for free… those apps should be pre-approved by the IT department.
Also have limits on the other types of apps that users can install.
Its a BYOD policy but with some limits.
Mr.Roques, you are outlining a very interesting point, especially for CIOs and IT Departments. BYOD is a key topic to address for them and it takes time for reaching the proper trade-off in security and in allowing own devices usage inside companies. Several providers are developing devoted software platforms for allowing devices' control, but once again, it is a critical matter because of privacy rules to accomplish.