Geekzone: Defining Security Policies for Pocket PCs

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?ContentId=3909' target='_blank'>http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.a...?ContentId=3909</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Whether you are a personal user or a corporate employee, if you have a mobile device, you should either have a security policy of your own or be bound by a corporate one. Some users have an informal security policy, however many have no security policy at all and have not even thought through the security implications of owning a Pocket PC. The same is true of organisations, whether it be a government department or a corporate organisation or a startup company. There are very few organisations that don’t have a mobile device of some sort, whether it is a mobile phone or a PDA. This article is designed to help organisations think through a mobile security policy that will work for their organisation. It will also be useful to help individuals consider how they want to manage security on their devices."</i><br /><br />Mauricio over at Geekzone has an extensive article on corporate security policies and special issues for Pocket PCs. He also brings up some examples of commercial platforms that enable these policies. If you're looking to or have deployed Pocket PCs for your company, you should check this out.

[Wiggster]

I'm having trouble accessing the Geekzone.co.nz server. I like the premise behind this article, I think I definitely need to adopt a security policy for my PDA.

[freitasm]

I'm having trouble accessing the Geekzone.co.nz server. I like the premise behind this article, I think I definitely need to adopt a security policy for my PDA.

Thanks for your interest... It may be that your network is blocking servers in the Asia-Pacific (sometimes network admins block wrong IP ranges thinking they're in South Korea, trying to block spam!).

You can send me a PM and I'll arrange a soft copy for you.

[jlp]

I think security systems, especially device access passwords come too much in the way of users.

Even one that I've found to be less obstrusive than others PicturePassword (I think VisKey behaves the same too), is still too much to activate.

In other words, when it's already active it's easy to go thru (you just tap on a secret spot on an image of your choice), but there are times (e.g. at home) when you want to deactivate it because you don't want to have to go thru this even simple security feature. Deactivating it is quick, but whenever you want to reactivate it you have to go thru the whole setup process every time. Also if you press on an application key (Calendar, Agenda, voice recorder, etc.) when PP is active it just turns on, you go thru the security feature but it doesn't switch to the chosen application.

So I used to use this program, but because of those 2 major hindrances, I've stopped using it after only a few days.

Even tho as I said its usage is less intrusive than other systems it's still too much, so I would think other people have the same problems as well.

Ideally activating it should be a one tap process, 2 at most, like tappint the start menu and taping a menu item (i.e. that would make it a one single tap access from Gigabar for example).

Here is my chance to find out about other PicturePassword or VisKey users opinions, even those of other systems.