Love your PDA?

Here's how to make it even better!

Protecting Passwords on Your PDA
© Charlie Page

Say it with me. I LOVE my PDA!!!

But if I lost mine I would be up a very unpleasant creek without the proverbial paddle. What's a PDA user to do??

All we can do is protect ourselves. Here are three low tech (but highly effective) ways to protect your most sensitive data.

What would happen if you lost your PDA today? On the one hand, you would get to upgrade to the latest and greatest and that would be cool. ;)

On the other hand, some schmuck would be running around with all your precious data in the palm of their grubby little hands. Not good. Not good at all.

One of the greatest failings of the PDA world has been security. Since our illustrious PDA software gurus won't take action, it's up to us (the loyal PDA user) to protect ourselves. Today we share five quick ways to do just that.

No, these won't keep Ivan the Terrible hacker out of your life, but they will save your backside should you misplace your PDA.

Here are three things to do with your precious bits of information.

1. Hide them as phone numbers. Make a phone book entry for each place you need a password. Then enter the password as the phone number or in the "notes" area of the phone number.

Be sure to add a fake phone number to the entry so it doesn't stand out like a sore thumb in case some thief is scrolling your address book list. This will add names to your address book, but your passwords will be safe.

2. Hide them as to do's. Create an undated task with the name of the site or company and the password. Many PDA's can be set to only display tasks that are due. When you need a password, change this setting, get the password, and change it back. Bingo, safe passwords.

3. Make them appointments. Enter an appointment for each password, using a name you will remember and adding the password information along with them.

4. Sneaky tip! Make them scores on a game on your PDA. Some games allow you to enter more than just initials when you register your score. Find such a game and tuck your passwords safely away from prying eyes.

Very few thieves will look through the address, calendar and to do sections of your PDA, since they contain too much information. They ALL look through your notes, which is where most passwords are stored.

A lost PDA may be a giant pain in the neck, but compared to a lost bank password, it's a walk in the park.

-----------------------------------

Charlie Page is a copywriter who owns the Directory of Ezines and the Directory of Marketing. If you want to sell more online, visit Charlie today at http://www.directoryofmarketing.com