For Your Eyes Only

We have become so accustomed to cell phones in the last decade. They have become an integral part of our lives, and with the addition of smart phones to the market we are become more and more dependent on these devices.

We store a great deal of our personal information on our phones, and in some cases this includes sensitive work information and documents. Our phones are a portal into our businesses and personal lives and we are not taking the right precautions to keep them safe. Maybe we are lulled into a false sense of security or maybe we don’t realise the amount of malware, spyware and trojans that are out there, ready to infect our phones.

Here are a few tips on how to safe guard your phone:

Don’t lose it – ok so this sounds like an obvious one, but seriously, how many times do you have to pat your pockets or phone your Blackberry to find its location? We are careless, and this can leave us wide open to our phones “growing legs”. A survey done in the United States showed that over 160 000 devices were left in Chicago Taxis every year. Think of the amount of data and photo’s that is. Think of the inconvenience, or worse of what could have been lost in that amount of devices. If you are prone to losing your phone, or would like the extra protection of having an app that can track your phone, should it be stolen you will find Cell Seeker by James N Cox (R47.00 available in App World) to be a gem of an app.

Use a password – if, after all efforts to not leave your Blackberry behind it still fall’s out your pocket – you know your important information is password protected. There are several great apps to keep all your sensitive apps and documents password protected so there is no excuse for you to have your information ready and easy for the less than good Samaritan that may pick your phone up.

To set up a general password on your phone go to:

• Options
• Security Options
• General Settings
• Password – which you can set and enable

You can also set how long your phone sits unused before it locks. This will save your sanity if you don’t want to put in a password several times in a BBM conversation

To lock or hide certain apps or files, a worthwhile app to download is App Locker by Vixso ( R17.50 in App World)

Enable Content Protection – If you are using a Blackberry Enterprise server, than the data going back and forth between the Blackberry and the server is encrypted. The data stored however is not.

Content protection encrypts emails and other data stored on you Blackberry. Choosing this will stop people being able to connect your Blackberry to a pc and reading your information. To enable simply do the following

• Options
• Security Options
• General Settings
• Content Protection – Set and Enable

Applying this to your address book however will make you lose your CLI (Caller Line ID) which means you won’t be able to see who is calling you. You need to decide if this necessary for your phone.

Wipe the Device before selling it – Again it sounds like something that is common knowledge, but once you have your brand new beautiful Berry, do you really give much thought to your previous one? I have handed one over before without doing a security wipe, and although I trusted the person completely…there was a silent freak out in the back of my mind when I realised what I had done. A security swipe is very easy to do and will ensure that none of your personal or business information gets into the wrong hands.

• Options
• Security Options
• General Settings

While in general settings, press the menu key and choose “Wipe Handheld”. Prompts will then take you through the rest of the process.

Of course a good virus protection is also a great app to download. Blackberry comes standard with Blackberry Protect which is great, however if you are looking for something a little more comprehensive, MobiShield Anti- virus by Trustmobi Software Co.Ltd.( Available in App World for R12.00)

I hope this information helps you in properly securing your Blackberry and giving you the peace of mind that your information is really For Your Eyes Only