Canadian mobile operator Telus continues to be at the cutting edge of technology as it allows its employees to move around buildings on their premises using their smartphones instead of relying on the old school access card. Apart from that, the smartphone will also be the “key” to log in to secure company networks as well as functioning as a platform to share sensitive data. Just how does Telus plan to go about with this? Well, they intend to make use of the Universal Integrated Circuit Cards (UICCs) which will be able to host Personal Identity Verification (PIV) credentials in a handset. Such cards will then provide employees with the necessary security clearance to sign in to facilities and services with their smartphones, not to mention doubling up access cards for Telus buildings.
According to Ken Haertling, VP and chief security officer at Telus, “At Telus we’re aiming to have 70 per cent of our employees working from home at least some of the time by 2015. What better way to do this than through the convenience of our employees’ mobile devices?”
This sounds like a proposition that other companies might want to look into, but converging your office key as well as security credentials into a smartphone is not the greatest idea either, especially when you lose your smartphone or have it stolen.
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