Welcome to the October 2011 issue of the newsletter of CSI Mumbai Chapter – ‘CSI NewsTrac’.

As IT professionals we are used to having some buzz going around every now and then. By the time crest of one buzz wave starts downward trail, other makes its appearance on the horizon. Latest buzz is about Mobile Application Development and it is helping small time software entrepreneurs making it big suddenly. Thanks to the app store concept promoted by Steve Jobs and his Apple team and then to the Google Android and others who followed the buzz.

Application development kits for such development can be downloaded and one can start developing small applications, which then can be made available to potential users/ buyers on the respective app stores. Sometimes these applications are free and/ or are available for small sum payable online. Part of the sum you pay goes to the app store but major portion goes to the application developer. Innovative idea, fancy feature and usefulness of the application while you are on move are key aspects to catch the attention of the smart phone users, who are the potential buyers for such applications.

The question that comes to my mind is what happens to our thoroughly defined software processes that we talk about so vehemently, when it comes to development of such applications. You might say that it is not necessary to follow any rigorous methodology while developing such mini applications, as the stakes involved are pretty small. If we consider the price of a typical such application (say a single $ or a few rupees and some others are free of charge), yes, then one is right that the stakes are small. But if one considers millions of downloads of such applications, it is a big business for someone.

Not only this but the potential that such applications might have some security holes cannot be absolutely denied. This brings us to the topic of secure coding. While one can start a separate debate on whether it is possible to write absolutely secure code or not, it certainly can not be expected that all such mini mobile applications available rampantly on app stores would be written with all the secure coding guidelines in mind. Add to this the fact that now mobile applications are also being tapped by corporates – banking and financial institutions not far behind - for serious business intimations, inputs and displays. I think this is providing the crooks a very fertile ground for using new tricks for achieving their interior motives.

How do we educate users in this situation against falling prey to new types of attacks? How do we ensure that everything available on the app stores is absolutely harmless? Ponder over these aspects and let us hope solutions will also come in some form or the other.

In this issue of CSI Mumbai Chapter Newstrac, we are publishing IT Policy draft which stresses on Information Security aspect. Also there is an interesting talk by none other than Steve Jobs, which is reproduced in his memory.

Wishing you happy reading and having good time and great learnings at two big events of CSI in near future…

Jayshree A Dhere
Editor, CSI Mumbai Newstrac