Security Bytes - April 2012 - Avoiding Lost Device Disasters!
After viewing the news and hearing about the rising incidents of mobile device thefts, I felt compelled to continue on the topic of mobile device security and how to avoid disasters. The news media had several stories about people being attacked violently to steal a mobile device. The main reason behind the attacks was to steal the device itself and to gain access to the data within it.
Without realizing it many people synchronize a large amount of sensitive data to their mobile devices without considering if that device is lost or stolen how it may impact their lives. Most of us dead the thought of loosing our purse or wallet due to the burden of having to cancel credit cards and notify authorities of potential identity theft.
The same can hold true for the loss of an electronic device as well if that device holds sensitive information. Building on my previous articles on password and device security, I want to emphasize that it is important to ensure that whatever method of encryption we decide to use to secure our device cannot be circumvented easily by someone once they get their hands on your device. Many hackers have access to the same forensic software law enforcement can use to extract information from your mobile device. So how do you gain security? Do not only rely on the security settings and encryption built into your device! Use a 3rd party program to encrypt and store your data on your device in an encrypted format that requires at least a very strong password and has at least 128bit or higher encryption algorithm.