5 ways to secure your Blackberry

Hoffman's point? Be discreet. Keep your private information private by taking care of business in a place where prying eyes can't see. And keep the conversations in front of people to a minimum. Besides risking a potential breach, you also risk annoying your neighbor.

Keep it on you!! This sounds like the most obvious piece of advice, but, as Hoffman points out, this is where most of the trouble begins for Blackberry owners.

"They are small and just left everywhere," noted Hoffman.

Popular places for slip-ups and loss include bars and restaurants where users place the device on a table or a bar, get into conversation and forget about. This not only opens up the possibility of leaving it behind, but also for theft. Even a temporary theft can be damaging. The bad guy can either obtain sensitive data or install a Trojan horse within a matter of seconds once the device is in hand, said Hoffman.

Have back up. Ok, so you didn't follow the last step and now you have idea where your Blackberry is located. What can you do? It depends on if you have prepared for this scenario.

If it's a corporate device and you work for a company with an enterprise Blackberry server, contact IT immediately. They can remotely lock or wipe the device. If it is your personal Blackberry, or if your company doesn't have that kind of support, consider installing software that gives you this kind of capability. Investing in a program that gives you remote access means you can lock the device so others can't get into it. You can also back up the information you have stored on the Blackberry and wipe it clean if you think it is lost permanently.

The investment, said Hoffman, means a lost device is simply a lost device, a piece of hardware. If you act quickly enough, it won't mean the loss of sensitive corporate data.

Utilize encryption On RIM devices, encryption is there, said Hoffman. Users simply need to activate. But many unfortunately do not.

Tags Blackberry