You probably read about cases of owners losing their PDA or Smartphones with very important or confidential information stored on the device’s memory. Not hard to imagine this can happen to anyone.
What can be done? There are some things to consider and some involve deploying software for remote management of mobile devices, or even software to completely lock down the device (some of these discussed in our previous article Defining a security policy for Windows Mobile Pocket PC).
One effective way of making information available to authorized users but still keeping it from prying eyes is using encryption programs. In this article we check the capabilities of 98720 Airscanner Mobile Encrypter for Pocket PC.
Airscanner Mobile Encrypter for Pocket PC is an easy to use encryption software. After installation on the Pocket PC it can be configured to initiate when the Pocket PC is soft reset, or be executed on demand by the user.
Easy to use menus
This software allows users to apply encryption in two ways. In the first type a single file or entire folder can be encrypted using a password. The resulting container file is only readable when decrypted back by using Airscanner Mobile Encrypter for Pocket PC with the correct password.
The file extension used to identify the encrypted files is automatically associated with Airscanner Mobile Encrypter for Pocket PC, so files can be decrypted directly from File Explorer.
elock are encrypted files and automatically associated with Airscanner Mobile Encrypter for Pocket PC
Another way of using the software is by creating an encrypted volume. This is an encrypted container file that can be mounted as a new folder on the system. The software can be configured for automatic un-mounting of this file after a certain inactivity time is detected.
User-set timeout
This is the best and most transparent way of using the program. If the file is created under \My Documents it will be automatically synchronized back to an ActiveSync partner computer.
After mounting an encrypted volume the user can simply utilize it like any other folder in the system – copying, moving and deleting files are simple operations like any other.
The volument management interface
On the left the SECRESTUFF file, and on the right the same file mounted as a folder
Pros
Easy to use encryption program
Encrypted volume capabilities
Auto-encryption of volumes after timeout set by user
Encryption using 168-bit 3DES
File Explorer on ActiveSync sees volume mounted as well
