Entries tagged with encryption - Channel 10

A New App For Mobile Security: Maverick Mobile

sarahintampa — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:31:00 GMT

At this year’s DEMO conference, one of the best demos was from a Pune, India-based company called Maverick Mobile. Their new mobile application helps protect the data on your phone in the event the phone is lost or stolen. The app can be used to back up your data, encrypt it, track your device, retrieve your phonebook from a lost phone, disable the device remotely, and even sound a warning alarm if you know the device to be stolen. At time of launch, the Maverick Mobile app works on Nokia phones only, but in November, the company will debut their Windows Mobile and Blackberry versions.

The app incrementally backs up the data on your phone to their secure servers so you can always retrieve it easily. If your phone is stolen and a new SIM card is put into the device, the application recognizes the change and immediately encrypts all the data, including your phonebook, images, messages, etc. You can then retrieve the data from another phone that’s in your possession and – here’s the best part – that retrieval is done using SMS text messages that are automatically sent from the stolen phone...meaning the thief’s account is used to pay for them!

You can also hunt down your device once it's been re-activated. The mobile app can send your new phone the phone number, device ID, country code, operator name, and area code belonging to your stolen device.

However, the craziest thing about the Maverick Mobile app is that it actually lets you harass the thief! You can make spy calls to the device, which switches on the loudspeaker and mic of the stolen phone so you can listen in on the conversations made. But what’s even more hilarious is that you can disable the stolen phone remotely and then have the device sound a loud alarm that sounds like a siren. The only way to disable the siren is to remove the battery! You can also have the app send a customized message with the alarm (like “this phone has been reported stolen, to return it, please call…” (or whatever message you want).

I couldn’t find any company videos that would allow you to see the device in action, unfortunately. However, I did come across this video from eWEEK where they interview one of the company founders:

Encrypt Your Thumb Drive

sarahintampa — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:57:00 GMT

I was reading a great post on LifeHacker about TrueCryprt, a free, open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP/2000 and Linux. The software, which creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real hard disk, sounds pretty awesome on its own. However, a commenter, pmhesse, pointed out what is, in my opinion, the software's greatest feature - it doesn't need to be installed to work! As it turns out, you can just put the following files on your thumb drive: truecrypt.exe, truecrypt.sys, and the encrypted volume itself. The encryption is done automatically, in real-time, and transparently. TrueCrypt volumes are hidden and impossible to identify; until decrypted, a TrueCrypt volume appears to consist of nothing more than random data. This is great for anyone who needs to take sensitive files out of the office on a USB key (or just for privacy nuts in genera!)

A Flash Drive that Backs Itself Up

sarahintampa — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:29:00 GMT

The 4 GB SanDisk Cruzer Titanium Plus USB flash drive is a new breed of flash drive. Instead of being a potential security risk, you can safely store your sensitive, important data on the drive without fear of losing it or deleting the files. The device is protected with password protection and hardware AES encryption, so you only you can access the files. When the Cruzer is plugged into an internet-connected machine, the drive will automatically back itself up online using 256-bit SSL encryption. If you accidentally delete files off of the drive, they can be easily restored from the online backup. Additionally, the files can be accessed via the website even when you don't have have the drive with you. The rugged, crush resistant case offers a layer of physical protection to the USB drive as well. An optional Lost-and-Found service can be utilized if you choose to pay the added expense for a BoomerangIt subscription. The drive comes with 6 months of the online backup service for free, after which you must pay the $30 annual fee to continue using it. For all this, the Cruzer's price of only $60 seems pretty reasonable for the security and peace of mind that it offers. (Via Webware)

Hitachi promises laptop disk encryption in 2007

Jesse — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:43:00 GMT

Thanks to the magic of Get Perpendicular, Hitachi hopes to ship 750GB laptop HDDs next year (2.5 inch for those keeping score at home). If that weren't enough to get our blood pumping a bit quicker, these drives will also come in hybrid flavors, which will allow for better performance and lower power consumption. Great right?

Well that's not all folks. These same hybrid disks will feature AES-based encryption. Using a key generated from your password, both the data on flash memory and the disk platters will be wrapped in a blanket of mathematics so complex...well let's just say Setec Astronomy ;)

(via Engadget)