SmallBizResource Blog -- Security

Easy Ways To Secure Your iPhone

Posted by Gayle Kesten Monday, Dec 8, 2008, 12:18 PM ET

Q3 sales for smartphones may have gone in the same direction as the rest of the economy, but let's not overlook the one bright spot that's as shiny as the screen on a brand-new iPhone.

According to the latest Gartner report, Apple has shot past Microsoft to become the third largest smartphone player in the global market. With 4.7 million iPhones sold from July through September, Apple's market share for Q3 is just shy of 13% -- a dramatic increase over its 3.4% share for the same period a year ago. Sales quadrupled year-over-year thanks to wider geographical availability, new business model, and lower pricing, according to the researcher.

On top of that, 300 million iPhone apps have been downloaded since Apple's App Store debuted this past summer. At that time, 500 apps were available; today that number is 10,000, the vendor says. Reports InformationWeek: "While fun and games dominate the charts right now, as the iPhone 3G infiltrates more businesses the number of enterprise applications is expected to swell." (I blogged about 13 useful apps about six weeks ago.)

Researchers, vendors, business users and consumers aren't the ones noting the trend. Those who relish in using their security powers for evil are, too -- which is why InfoWorld's article outlining eight easy ways to secure your iPhone caught my eye. Here are the first four; click here for the rest, and then add any of your own tips in the Comments area below.

1. Never leave your iPhone unlocked. You've heard that, but you haven't heard how to make it painless: Practice. When entering your PIN becomes ingrained into muscle memory, you'll never be tempted to disable the lock to save time, and even sharp-eyed shoulder surfers can't watch you enter your PIN.

2. Keep up with Apple firmware updates. Apple requires the use of desktop tools for firmware updates: Users must run Apple Software Update on their Mac or PC to grab them from iTunes when they become available. When running iTunes at a work desktop is forbidden by policy, easy access to IT-controlled update stations should be arranged.

3. Put your iPhone on a leash. Keeping your phone with you provides the only impenetrable shield against theft or tampering. Don't choose a jacket pocket, a backpack compartment, or any container from which you walk away. Treat your iPhone as you do your wallet.

4. Secure your iTunes host. Your PC or Mac keeps a complete image of the flash memory in your iPhone. From this recovery image, a skilled hacker could read all of the data on the phone. It only takes a few seconds to move that firmware image from your disk to a thumb drive. And it takes little time or skill to replace that image with one that can reflash your iPhone's firmware with something nasty. The smartest way to go is to keep your iPhone backups on your own thumb drive. This makes automatic restores and updates slightly more challenging, but it's worth it.

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