Accidental Calling and Your Security

It has surely happened to everyone. An accidental keypress while a phone is in your pocket and someone gets a phonecall. For the most part these calls are harmless but there are times when it might become a nuisance.

The Shadow comes with automatic locking already enabled, however the two keys needed to unlock it are on next to each other on the same side of the phone. Further, the call button is next to these two as well. Simply walking can press these buttons.

There is a solution, a solution everyone should use anyways. Use a pin code with your phone. It might seem a small nuisance at first but if you do leave your phone somewhere you don’t have to worry about your information and pictures ending up in the wrong hands.

Additionally, Windows Mobile 6 (WM6) includes a setting for encrypting content on your memory card. A pin for your phone is only good for the information on the phone itself. If you have any sensitive data on the memory card it can be accessed through a card reader. So encrypt it and give the bad guys a hard time.

This post is a short walk through on how to set up your PIN and encryption for your memory card. Read the full story for the walk through.

Go to Start > Settings

Select ‘Slide and Key Lock’

Be Sure that ‘Auto lock timeout:’ is Enabled. Press ‘Done’. You will return to the previous screen, select ‘More’.

On the next screen select ‘Security’

On the Security Screen select ‘Device Lock’

Check the Prompt box and select ‘5 minutes’, the Auto Lock feature we select earlier will actually lock the phone before this, but this will help. Select the kind of PIN you want and enter it into the fields. Select ‘Done’ when finished.

At the next screen select ‘Encryption’

Check the ‘Encrypt…’ box. This will encrypt everything that goes onto the Storage Card. This will always render these files unreadable on any other device (unless of course you send them via messaging, etc.) You might notice a small performance drop when the Shadow accesses the Storage Card. If it becomes too much of a nuisance you can always uncheck this box later. Just remember to not leave your phone lying around people if you have sensitive data. That’s it for now!