KBR is a corporate finance advisory and brokerage firm based in the City of London. Like many organisations, its employees are increasingly using their personal mobile devices to access work documents.

Given the sensitive nature of the documents that KBR handles for its customers, managing director Simon Frost saw this as an emerging security issue. “We don’t know which smartphones our employees are using, and we can’t stipulate what software they put on the device,” Frost says.

To ensure the security of its information assets, KBR therefore implemented a system from UK provider Simplexo.
The system works by replicating KBR’s documents in a secure cloud environment. Once authenticated, users can search and read these replicated documents from their smartphones and laptops.

The data is encrypted at rest and in transit between the Simplexo cloud and the user device, and there is no direct connection between the device and the corporate network.

Frost reports that the service is cheaper than setting up a virtual private network. It does one job and does it well, he says – making useful data available anywhere through a secure connection, without putting the corporate environment at risk.

KBR’s Simplexo implementation shows that, when deployed correctly, cloud computing can enhance security, not undermine it.