A recent case of personal data being stolen off one of my mobile devices has made me think about ways to protect the data on them. While my Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices have had some sort of data guard right from delivery, my S60 phone still cannot lock itself after a short period of inactivity. Phone Guardian is marketed as universal security suite - but can it stack up?
After installing Phone Guardian, a master password must be set. This password is then needed for all Guardian operations - it must not be lost under any circumstances:
The application’ main menu is modeled after a Settings panel - most of the options are relevant only for the theft-protection features:
The item at the very bottom of the list allows you to specify a ‘timeout’; after which the phone gets locked automatically. Unfortunately, time is measured in hh:mm - and the shortest lock interval is a minute.
When the phone is idle for the specified time, a password entry dialog is popped up over the currently-running application. While this dialog does a great job at blocking the arsonist from interacting with the phone; the data currently on-screen is left unprotected:
Phone Guardian can also be remote-controlled by sending SMS to the mobile phone, allowing you to find the phone’s current location,…. The program also keeps you updated whenever the SIM card in your phone is changed.
Last but not least, Phone Guardian contains a very detailed help system explaining both local and remote operations in considerable detail:
This review looked at version 2.0 of the program on a Nokia N71. It must be installed to RAM by all means, taking up 200KB of storage space.
Overall, Phone Guardian does lock your phone automatically after some delay. While the autolock system definitely still has its quirks(e.g. long minimum time; password dialog); it nevertheless manages to keep your phone safe. As for the thief-tracking features…while I am not sure of their practical value against professionals(they format phones IMHO); they definitely can help tracking down semiprofessional arsonists. The price of 13$ is well-invested money; especially considering all the phone numbers, private messages and photos/videos on your phone!