With the new version of Apple's iPhone on the way, enterprises need to be ready to deal with the security implications of employees' smart phones.

Whether IT organizations are ready or not, smart phones are a reality for enterprises. Gartner analysts predicted in a January report that smart-phone sales will reach about 173 million in 2008, a jump of 42 percent from last year. The iPhone 3G, slated to be available July 11, is Apple's latest attempt to capitalize on consumers' desire for Internet-enabled phones with more and more functionality.

But with adoption of these devices increasing, organizations need to assess their policies to control any potential threat to corporate data. For Rob Israel, CIO of John C. Lincoln Health Network, in Phoenix, that means allowing only BlackBerry and GoodLink devices on the network.

"We like those because of the encryption capabilities as well as the ability to wipe them remotely if anything happens," Israel said. "We don't allow smart phones to sync to our network and actually upload or download any information besides e-mail, calendaring and stuff like that. We don't allow smart phones to be used to store clinical information or full patient information."

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