Re: Use of Acompli to accelerate email to IOS and Android

[Mike Osterman <ostermmg () WHITMAN EDU>]

I think the issue with Acompli (or CloudMagic, Inky and the others that support non-OAuth mail) password storage is 
that it's storing the password on a remote server rather than on the person's device. There's always the risk that the 
app itself could turn evil and leak your credentials, but in the remote server scenario, you're providing a credential 
to a third party that could prove very dangerous in SSO-enabled environments like the EDU space. Sure, it's encrypted, 
but if they lost their encryption keys and the database, that's a pretty substantial loss.

Worse still, I don't think anyone but IT folks really understand the distinction of the location of the password 
storage or cares to do the research to make an informed decision.

Even in the OAuth scenario, you're avoiding the credential issue, but do still have highly-sensitive mail data (except 
in the case of Inky - http://inky.com/faq/) passing through 3rd party servers in most implementations. If an 
organization is using Exchange on-premise, then you'll lose the inherent data privacy benefit by having institutional 
mail data--"metadata" at a minimum--traveling outside the organization.

It's tough, because this new breed of mail clients offer some fantastic functionality (I personally love the Snooze 
feature in Mailbox.app and use it with my personal email), but there are privacy tradeoffs, and many of our 
institutions don't have the policies and/or technical controls in place to be able to address these risks.

Mike Osterman
Director, Enterprise Technology
Whitman College
(509) 527-5419

> On Jan 30, 2015, at 9:00 AM, Steve Terry <terrys () DENISON EDU> wrote:
>
> Dennis:
>
> Microsoft purchased Acompli a short time ago and turned it into a new version of Outlook for iOS and Android devices:
> http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/29/7936081/microsoft-outlook-app-ios-android-features 
> <http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/29/7936081/microsoft-outlook-app-ios-android-features>
>
> I have used Acompli for about a year and have found it to be a fantastic piece of software.  I have also downloaded 
> and run the new version of Outlook to compare it to my previous version of Acompli - it is same, but better!  (Add 
> file access to Dropbox and other services.)
>
> As for authentication, (Denision is a Google Education shop) - it prompts and uses our SSO authentication services to 
> establish the initial connection to (Gmail) for us.  I see no differences, in this new version of Outlook, in terms 
> of "storing" account information over any other previous iOS email clients?  
>
> Steve
>
> Steve Terry
> Director of Enterprise Applications
> ITS
> Denison University
> Fellows Hall - 102B
> Granville, OH 43023 
> 740-587-8685 <> | www.denison.edu <http://www.denison.edu/>
> On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 10:11 AM, Dennis Levine <dennis_levine () emerson edu <mailto:dennis_levine () emerson edu>> 
> wrote:
> Hi All.
>
>   Just wondering if anyone is using or is considering the use of Acompli (https://www.acompli.com 
> <https://www.acompli.com/>) to accelerate email distribution to IOS and Android mobile devices.
>
> I’m a bit hesitant because they require a login to the exchange server and then store the email and account 
> information on their servers, though they say it’s encrypted.
>
> Any thoughts,
>
> Dennis
>
>  
>
> Dennis Levine | Network and Security Administrator | 120 Boylston Street  Boston, MA  02116-4624 | (617) 824-8972 
> <tel:%28617%29%20824-8972> | Dennis_Levine () emerson edu <mailto:Dennis_Levine () emerson edu> | www.emerson.edu 
> <http://www.emerson.edu/>
> <image001.jpg>
>
>