11-29-2003, 08:00 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 3,060
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Protect Your Data By Making It Self-Destruct
With any kind of mobile device, especially those used by employees to store and use corporate information, security is a paramount concern. The three-digit power-on password of Pocket PCs is admittedly not inpenetrable, and numerous solutions have been developed to further block unauthorized access to Pocket PCs and their guts. According to a ZDNet article, St. Louis-based mobility specialist Asynchrony Solutions has come up with a new way to make sure that, even if your device "falls into enemy hands," its precious cargo remains unusable.
Like similar security applications, "PDA Defense" provides careful encryption and password protection. However, an added feature allows the owner to configure PDA Defense to completely destroy sensitive data if there are numerous failed password attempts or if the Pocket PC is not synchronized with its host PC within a certain number of hours.
PDA Defense seems to be fairly flexible, because the user can determine exactly which applications' data is encrypted and wiped during a self-destruct. You can download a free demo or buy the full single-user version for $29.99 from Handango. Enterprise licenses for multipe users can be obtained directly from Asynchrony Solutions.
Now, if somebody REALLY wanted to get at my secret, coveted recipes for "Bologna Surprise" and "Wienie Wonder," he could still crack open my Pocket PC, yank out the RAM chips and attack the encryption algorithm with a powerful PC. Still, PDA Defense offers a new level of protection against all but the most dedicated and knowledgable hackers.
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11-29-2003, 09:09 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 17
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Re: Protect Your Data By Making It Self-Destruct
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Originally Posted by Brad Adrian
Now, if somebody REALLY wanted to get at my secret, coveted recipes for "Bologna Surprise" and "Wienie Wonder," he could still crack open my Pocket PC, yank out the RAM chips and attack the encryption algorithm with a powerful PC. |
I have a new mission in life! :twisted:
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11-29-2003, 09:37 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 437
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Re: Protect Your Data By Making It Self-Destruct
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Originally Posted by darius779
I have a new mission in life! :twisted:
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:lol: hehe aim higher.
This product might be pretty useful for business applications where secure data is going out in the field regularly. Wonder what enterprise pricing is like.
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11-29-2003, 03:14 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 482
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This seems like a good idea for some, but one problem is that sometimes people don't care if there's no important files or stuff in the memory, for example in my freshman year of high school I had a Palm VII that I loved, then lost one day and I'm sure the kid who found it and ignored my name, address, and phone number also ignored all the other data and said "Hey, one o' those computer things. I think I'll smash it against the wall!"
The sad thing is that I can definitely see someone doing that in my school.
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11-30-2003, 02:00 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 3,060
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Re: Protect Your Data By Making It Self-Destruct
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Originally Posted by Godsongz
...Wonder what enterprise pricing is like...
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The ZDNet article says this about pricing:
"Considering what it does, PDA Defense's pricing is reasonable. The professional edition (with no centralized admin capabilities) goes for $29.95, and the enterprise version (with centralized admin) costs $1,500 and covers 50 users (which works out to $30 per user). That per-user cost goes down as the number of users goes up. For organizations with 10,000 licenses, Elfanbaum says, the cost drops to about $13 per user."
Not too bad, especially if you're throwing this onto a bunch of devices.
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11-30-2003, 02:02 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 3,060
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Re: Protect Your Data By Making It Self-Destruct
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Originally Posted by Godsongz
...aim higher...
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I'm hurt. What higher calling in life could one have than to emulate me?
[Wait. Don't answer that...]
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11-30-2003, 10:01 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 7
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ZENworks for Handhelds
This is great for individual users. For enterprise users, consider Novell's product, ZENworks for Handhelds. It does all this and a whole lot more. Security, Application Deployment, Inventory...
http://www.novell.com/products/zenwo...lds/index.html
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12-01-2003, 10:11 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 315
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Quote:
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Now, if somebody REALLY wanted to get at my secret, coveted recipes for "Bologna Surprise" and "Wienie Wonder," he could still crack open my Pocket PC, yank out the RAM chips and attack the encryption algorithm with a powerful PC.
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that would be ideal... if the ram inside your pocket pc was flashram. It isn't though, its normal sdram and thus removing the chips will just whipe them out. you might beable to read the chips still connected, but you would then need access and clip the chips while maintaining a power source to em (And to cover my bases.. I belive with sensitive scientific grade equipment, it is possible to read the last contents of a ram chip sense its power has been removed, residual charges most likely do remain for a while).
that said, this wont work if your sensitive data is on a SD or cf card as they can pull those before they get deleted. ^^
BTW mu pocket pc uses a 4 number password system, and you have the option of switching over to an even more complex and longer alphanumaric password. This should be enough for any normal user
. If you have sensitive data from work then you can just hit up your work to pay for the program.
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