PDAs and Internet thieves

HR Magazine, Sept, 2005 by Ann Pomeroy

Security alert for executives who never go anywhere without their Black-Berry, Treo or other personal digital assistant: These handy gadgets represent a gold mine for Internet thieves.

Convenient as PDAs can be for busy executives, who may use them to store sensitive business data, along with credit card numbers, passwords and other personal information, they can cause major headaches if they are lost or stolen, warns attorney Peter Vogel, who practices Internet and technology law with Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP in Dallas.

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Vogel advises owners to protect PDAs with a password. "Too few people use passwords to lock their PDAs simply because it slows them down, particularly if the PDA is also a phone," says Vogel, who also has a master's degree in computer science. Without passwords, however, "PDAs are wide open."

In addition, owners may want to install software that allows their IT department to remotely delete the data if their PDA is missing.

"If my Treo is stolen," Vogel says, "my IT department can update it with blanks and wipe out all my personal information."