Fresh off of its ISO/IEC 27018 certification and two weeks after the release of Outlook on iOS and Android, Microsoft has updated the security of the mobile version of its mail client to better address the needs of its enterprise users.
Microsoft promised to deliver updates for the Android and iOS versions of Outlook every few weeks. And with the Android version of the app still in its preview stage and both versions only two weeks old, the company is keeping that promise so far.
The update's most important features for enterprise users are the Pin Lock and improvements to remote swipe. With the latest update, administrators can now remotely wipe Outlook in a matter of seconds - the erasure occurs at the app level, wipe Outlook content from both the device and the cloud.
With the new Pin Lock feature, there are a few differences between how it's implemented on Android and iOS devices. Microsoft says the differences are due to the types of controls made available by Google and Apple.
"Outlook takes advantage of the controls available to Microsoft as a third-party application developer," says Microsoft. "As we enable support for Microsoft Intune mobile device management and as Apple makes more controls available, we will continue to improve this capability."
On iOS, Outlook automatically encrypts information it stores locally -- Outlook is only available on iOS 8.0, which enables it to take advantage of Apple's latest encryption algorithms. Outlook leverages iOS 8's native encryption once a user sets up a pin code and the app won't work until the user establishes a security code.
Microsoft says Google enables it to implement expanded Office 365 and Exchange rules, with regards to password length and complexity. The use of local encryption is optional on Android, but Outlook encourages users to apply the additional protection.
The rest of the features rolled out in the update included IMAP for mail services such Gmail and Yahoo Mail, an On/Off switch for iOS' mail bundling and custom swipe gestures for Android.
It also plans to deliver support for its Intune services and migrate Outlook's cloud service from Amazon Web Services to Microsoft Azure. The move to its Azure may be in part influenced by its cloud service's ISO/IEC 27018 certification.
Microsoft's Azure was the first cloud service to officially comply with the International Standards Organization's 27018 standard, an important step for a company says it's attempting to thrive in a "cloud first, mobile first" world.
