Palm Security

june 14, 2003

Well, we all get worked up about security on the desktop ("Someone hacked my machine! I gotta put up a firewall for my DSL!") and stuff, but what about your handheld? I use my Tungsten T to keep track of a lot of things in my life: Passwords, Addresses, Dates, etc. I never really made a big deal about it until I lost my SD card the other week. I use Botzam Backup to do backups and all my info on the SD card was encrypted, that was a good thing. Also my passwords are stored in SplashID which encrypts them. But, what if I lost my handheld itself? All my information (like Addresses, Dates, etc) are not encrypted on the handheld. They would be open for public eyes. That would suck. Now I'm using PDA Defense (Standard Edition) to protect my Tungsten T. It encrypts my database and has a couple of nice security featuers: It has a limited try for passwords (if you fail in say 10 tries at the password the data on the handheld is "bombed" or erased), it locks down the IR port, it locks down the HotSync port, and it locks down the handheld even after a soft-reset. Not a bad way to protect a PDA.


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