CXO-Cockpit Mobile Rollout Considerations

Owned by CXOS
Last updated: Jun 22, 2015 by Andy Heller (Deactivated)
2 min read

Introduction

CXO-Cockpit currently provides Apps for the iPad, iPhone and Android. This article describes typical considerations when rolling out one of the CXO-Cockpit mobile apps and the most common ways to address them.

Security considerations

As soon as companies want to access confidential information on mobile devices all sorts of questions come up.

Questions like:

  • What additional security can we use to secure our mobile data?
  • Can we encrypt this data?
  • Does the App cache any of the reports?

In order to answer these questions (since CXO-Cockpit is installed in most cases in your own environment) it often comes down to your own IT policies on how to deal with the connectivity to CXO-Cockpit.

Below you will find connectivity solutions applied by our customers.

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Apply SSL encryption and make the website publicly available

This option is most used by non-public organizations and is probably the most user friendly option. The way it works is that all website traffic is encrypted using SSL, while the website is available publicly on the internet. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral. SSL is an industry standard and is used by millions of websites. In case of the CXO-Cockpit the remote user just needs to log in to the CXO-Cockpit app with a user name and password to get access to the dashboards. It is recommended to enforce a complex password policy to avoid passwords like “Welcome”.

VPN connection Using a VPN connection, sometimes in combination with SSL, is widely used by public organizations

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network, such as the Internet. It enables a computer to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if it were directly connected to the private network, while benefiting from the functionality, security and management policies of the private network. The user needs to have the correct VPN software and account details on his mobile device in order to login to the corporate network. Once connected to the network via VPN the user can start the mobile app and login to CXO-Cockpit.

No remote connectivity

Some companies decide to use the CXO-Cockpit mobile app only within the company building. The user can then only access CXO-Cockpit reports on their mobile device when connected to company Wi-Fi. With this security level it is still possible to use an iPad during a board meeting. This option is very secure, but also limited.

Additional features

The CXO-Cockpit provides a number of additional features to make the mobile usage more secure:

  • Mobile usage can be switched off at server level
  • Mobile usage can be switched off/on per user
  • The “Remember my password” function can be disabled at server level
  • None of the reports viewed with the CXO-Cockpit app are cached on the mobile device