Top Tips for your PDA

Sharpen up your senses

It’s easy to leave something small lying somewhere. PDAs are fated to be forgotten and left behind. A tip from memory trainers: mentally run through your daily routine and check all important devices and objects that play a role in it against what you are actually packing.

Individualize the logon screen

If you really lost your PDA, you don’t have to give up hope of ever seeing it again if you have a customizable logon screen. In a customizable logon screen, you can select the image and text, and they will show an honest finder how to return the PDA.

Create consequences for incorrect logons

Often all that is needed to put honest but curious finders from finding out too much about your device is to activate available reactions to an incorrect login. These include a time delay after a failed logon attempt, an audible warning signal, or even the deletion of all data, which will even thwart ambitious sniffers.

Enter more than just passwords

If the finder is not at all honest, but in fact is deliberately trying to access someone else's data, they will not be put off by a simple password. You can achieve security by using a dual protection mechanism that combines authentication and encryption.

Demand authentication

By authentication, IT security experts mean a recognition mechanism that only the authorized owner can operate. This might be a password or – even harder to crack – a sequence of symbols. Those who find it hard to remember their password would be well served by biometric recognition mechanisms – some protection solutions for PDAs enable authentication by signature. These solutions do not just react to the signature image, but also to dynamic factors such as the way the user enters the signature image on the screen.

Encrypt your data transparently

If PDA thieves should overcome the obstacle of authentication, the second hurdle of professional encryption will prevent them from viewing the data on the device. Suitable software applications encrypt not only the individual files and folders on the PDA, but also all Personal Information Management (PIM) data. This means that it is no longer possible to view events and contact data. Encryption also has special benefits when it comes to data exchange: when the information is being transferred via e-mail or on memory cards, no one can see the contents of the files.

Watch out for ActiveSync links

Everyone who has a company PDA with them while on the move should ask their administrator to switch off ActiveSync links between their PDA and non-company devices. This will make it hard for a data thief to transfer data from the stolen device to a different desktop.

Make data secure

There are a range of tricks for switching off software-based security mechanisms so, when you choose a security application, it is important that the security settings still apply after a hard reset of the device. Only then will a thief really be unable to access the saved data.

Bind the device to the SIM card

Some companies issue their PDA users special SIM cards in their smartphones. These SIM cards contain preconfigured data channels in the corporate network. It is necessary to prevent the unauthorized swapping of the SIM card so that a non-company SIM card cannot be used to introduce viruses and thus threaten the stability of the entire corporate network.

Close unused loopholes

Do you have a notebook in your briefcase next to your PDA? Then you also need to protect the data stored on it. When you have closed all the loopholes that are potential weak points for someone to access your data, you no longer have to worry about nosy snoopers.