Cisco’s “SIO To Go” App Brings Network Security Management to the iPhone
November 20, 2009 - By Justin E. Gehrke
On November 18, 2009, Cisco’s latest venture into the iPhone Application market hit the iTunes Store in the form of SIO To Go. The official description of this free application states, “The Cisco SIO To Go iPhone application informs, protects, and enables you to respond to alerts and real-time threats to your network and users.” Unlike some of the bulkier security applications, its footprint is small (less than 1MB) and allows for over the air downloading, without a Wi-Fi connection.
Launching the application provides the user with a screen displaying “All” Feeds relating to CISCO security news, blogs, advisories, etc. Selecting the “About” icon allows for customizable view of feeds. By default, all are visible. Individual feeds can be viewed by scrolling left and right using the “<<” and “>>” icons. Like most other applications, touching a specific title will open the full contents of the topic. The “Cisco Threat Outbreaks” feed provides near real-time awareness of emerging and severe threats to networks. Sub-categories such as “Urgency”, “Credibility”, and “Severity” and the brief, yet succinct, overview of the threat will allow network security professionals to determine the potential impact to their individual networks.
The application also includes a “Lookup” function that serves two purposes. At a glance security professionals are readily informed if a virus outbreak is ongoing. Additionally, domain names and IP addresses can be searched to obtain basic information and statistics, to include the “Web Reputation Score”. While all of this information may not be useful to all users, it does provide professionals with a quick way to determine if ongoing or potential inbound/outbound activity on their network necessitates immediate preventive or reactionary action.
Overall, the application seems to be solidly built. Is this application going to save the cyber-universe? It probably won’t, but anyone whose job requires real-time awareness of cyber threats should definitely include this in their “on-the-go” security toolbox.
Click “Continue Reading this Post…” (below) to view more screenshots taken during Geek Shui Living’s basic functionality testing of this application.
Justin E. Gehrke (CISSP, CIWSP, MCSA, CompTIA Security+/Project+/A+) is the founder of Geek Shui Living. As a right and left-brained geek, he is available for consulting in the areas of Information Technology, Network Security, and creative web design and development. He really does appreciate feedback from the computing masses, so feel free to transmit your packets to him, via the Geek Shui Living Contact page.
