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 BlackBerry 7100v |
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Today's smart phones and PDAs let you boost your business in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. And protecting sensitive data on your handheld is a great insurance policy and crucial for your business.
Today, PDAs and smart phones can help you enhance your business in ways that were unheard of in the recent past, such as accepting credit cards from customers and collecting data about customer problems while in the field.
But even if you don't need this kind of functionality, you probably carry important business information on your device. Protecting sensitive data on your handheld is a great insurance policy and crucial for your business.
1. Take orders and make them secure
Make It Work, a 32-employee computer support company that serves Southern California, accepts credit cards directly from its customers in the field. Make It Work employees use a combination of RIM BlackBerry 7130e phones (US$299.99) for executives and 7520 phones (US$449.99) for field technicians, all connected via a secure BlackBerry server.
"We're obviously dealing with customer information and other sensitive billing info that we don't want [in] the wrong hands," said Eric David Greenspan, the founder and CEO of Make It Work. The bulk of his customers pay by credit card; a technician inputs the data into a 7520, and the data is transferred to the office billing system.
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 Nokia's 9300 now comes with BlackBerry, too. |
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When Greenspan first deployed the handhelds, he had only 10 field technicians (out of a total of 12 employees). Greenspan imagined that one day he'd have 1,000 technicians, so his company got a head start on planning. "Our business would be impossible--having to call things in manually, the employee overhead, the potential for errors--we couldn't scale the business without the BlackBerry solution."
3. Who needs it?
Which employees should carry sensitive data on their handhelds? If they're primarily using smart phones and PDAs to send quick e-mail back and forth, you probably don't need an expensive security solution. However, if you store any kind of sensitive data on your handhelds, use a mobile firewall and an antivirus package to safeguard against hackers. Look into products such as Airscanner Mobile Security Bundle ($89.97) and JP Mobile SureWave Defense (US$39.95), which you can purchase on a per-phone license and update with the latest security patches.
"The handheld is a logical extension of the desktop or laptop," said Craig Vallarino, director of worldwide sales at Lok Technology, a 25-person company that sells wireless network hardware. It uses Trend Micro Mobile Security 2.0 (US$24.95 per user) on the company's Samsung SCH-i730s (US$599.99). "Our thought process is that if the viruses are being written almost weekly to attack the laptop and desktop, Pocket PCs are going to be next," said Vallarino.
4. Keep prying eyes away from your data
Many phones and PDAs come with on-access password protection, which you should always enable. Encryption software goes a step further by making sure the data on the drive is useless to anyone but you. Get software such as Utimaco SafeGuard PDA (US$87.00) or Airscanner Mobile Encrypter (US$29.99) to prevent this kind of catastrophe from threatening your business, by making sure that no one can steal your handheld and quickly attempt to access its information.
"Our handhelds store sensitive customer data. For us, handheld security is not necessarily a moneymaker, but [the lack of it] is definitely a money loser," said Vallarino. "The BlackBerry allows us to have instant, secure, push-technology communications with our customers, field reps, and the rest of the company," added Greenspan. "You can't delight your customers if you can't respond to them immediately."
