Palm Data Being Secure Etc ....Just an Advertising Gimmick ??

[plainman007]

I just found something strange and unnerving. Who says palm data is secure. Only the manufacturer says so. I found that you could just go into the palm root directory and read the data that supposed to be secure. LOL. What a joke for a PDA OS. Though im used to a little bit of computer programming back in the days. But im alarmed with what logic these companies release products like this. Theres so many bugs in the program software both on the PDA and Desktop end. But lets focus on this issue for now. You can just open the data files using right click open with command in windows and selecting Notepad. Viola ! You can read almost all the data records of any type Calender, Contacts, Memos. What a sorry A$$ company Palm One must be. And to add insult to injury theres a function to ask for password before starting palm desktop. This sucks. The front door is secure, it even has passwords. While theres no Backdoor at all. Forget secure.

[benjie]

No one said the data was secure. The Palm OS "hides" the data from prying eyes in the normal sense. If you want to secure your data, encrypt it, there are 3rd party applications that specifically do so.

[plainman007]

No Benjie. The website clearly mentions in several places that data is completely secure. It didnt say "in the normal sense". And hide means only one thing, even in the normal sense or sense of any kind. Its hidden period and theres no justified relation to the word security. An average joe will attempt to go into the palm folder and see whats there. And why even bother to have a password facility when its of no significance.

But anyway to set right the situation....
Encrypt it as in using a palm based application or a windows file system encrypter. I have the latter. But if i encrypt the palm folder it would lock up access to it by the palm application too right ?

[stevetaz]

Valid concerns. Take a look at this.

1) Don't lose your Treo.
2) Don't lose your laptop.
3) Don't forget about what you store on the SD Card.

Take a look at this for the Palm Desktop concern.

SteveTaz

[benjie]

Device security is a feature I take seriously. The 2 Centros and 700P have TealLock 6 installed and configured to wipe the device and card with the appropriate SMS message. My 800W has SpriteMobile Terminator installed that does the same and also responds with its location determined by aGPS. So even though the data itself may not always be secure, at least install a good securitiy application, learn how to use it, keep it enabled, and pray you do not have to use it.

[plainman007]

Steve > I clicked that link but it doesnt seem to work. "page not found". Maybe its temporarily down or wrong link ?
In my whole life ive never lost a moblie phone. Touch wood. I started this thread more as a universal question that might appply to many others. A home where you may not want someone snooping around your info. A place of work where you have mutlple users using your system and so on. Especially in situations where more than one palm user syncs to the same desktop. They can peek at your info and today info is everything right ?

Benjie > Ill try to look up teal lock. But my main concern is not losing the treo. Thats a littl drastic and has its own measures like what your mentioning. But for people who sync to a home pc thats used by all in the family. It takes just 1 geek like me to go into the folder and try to open the data from there. Theres no privacy in the desktop. The actual handheld is out of the discussion here since the vulnerable point in on the desktop.

[benjie]

I understand about the desktop. In my situation, I use a laptop that no one in the family has access to. However, the laptop is set up to back up to an external hard drive and it is open to anyone in the family to attach it to their own computer and look through. Frankly, there is nothing on my laptop or 800W that I mind if anyone looks at.

[stevetaz]

[quote=plainman007;68049]Steve > I clicked that link but it doesnt seem to work. "page not found".

Not sure which didn't work, but they both just worked for me:
http://lockmymobile.com/home.aspx

http://www.innersafe.com/palm_desktop

SteveTaz