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They may be after the phone, but what about the data? How much of your life is on your mobile device? Some misguided companies let employees use personal devices for work. I wonder what an auditor would say about due diligence and due care when data is leaked through such ignorance. Think, before you set a lax password, or none at all. Karl Thieves are increasingly going after iPhones and other smartphones but victims now can fight back with technology. One device allows a user to remotely activate a loud siren designed to rattle the thief. Another application, designed for iPhones, can reveal the phone's location. Police statistics show petty crime is down in New York but anecdotal evidence and recent headlines about street muggings targeting costly and coveted devices like Apple's iPhone and T-Mobile's Sidekick have disturbed smartphone users concerned about protecting access to e-mail, passwords and other data.

Thieves are increasingly going after iPhones and other smartphones but victims now can fight back with technology. One device allows a user to remotely activate a loud siren designed to rattle the thief. Another application, designed for iPhones, can reveal the phone's location. Police statistics show petty crime is down in New York but anecdotal evidence and recent headlines about street muggings targeting costly and coveted devices like Apple's iPhone and T-Mobile's Sidekick have disturbed smartphone users concerned about protecting access to e-mail, passwords and other data.

Do you know where your friends are? If not, Google wants to help you find them. Today, Google introduced Latitude, a new opt-in feature that lets smartphone and laptop users share their location with friends and allows those friends to share their locations in return. Although not pinpoint accurate, Latitude can display your general location based on information from GPS satellites and cell towers. Latitude works on both mobile devices and personal computers. What Latitude can do Once you and your friends have opted in to Latitude, you can see your friends' Google icon displayed on Google Maps. Clicking on their icon allows you to call, email or IM them, and you can even use the directions feature on Google Maps to help you get to their location. Google says Latitude works in 27 countries and with many mobile platforms including iGoogle with your computer. The list of compatible phones are: *Android-powered devices, such as the T-Mobile G1 *iPhone and iPod touch devices (coming soon) *most color BlackBerry devices *most Windows Mobile 5.0+ devices *most Symbian S60 devices (Nokia smartphones) *many Java-enabled (J2ME) mobile phones, such as Sony Ericsson devices (coming soon)

A TV investigation has revealed that secondhand BlackBerries on Nigerian markets are priced according to the data held on them, not the age or the model of a phone. Jon Godfrey, director of Sims LifeCycle Services, who is advising on a TV investigation into the trade due to screen later this year, said that BlackBerries sell for between $25 to $65 on Lagos markets. Details of the trade come from an agent in Nigeria unaffiliated to Sims' technology recycling business. Godfrey explained that the smart phones offered for sale come from the US, continental Europe and the UK. "It's unclear as yet whether the phones are either sold, thrown away, lost or stolen," Godfrey explained. Other type of smartphone are also of potential interest to data thieves, but it is the trade in BlackBerries that seems to be the most active. Data retrieved from smartphones is itraded by crooks in Nigeria. BlackBerries include technology to remotely wipe devices and come with built-in encryption. But this encryption is often left switched off because it is considered an inconvenience.

"Hackers can use maliciously rigged PDF files to hack into corporate systems hosting the BlackBerry Attachment Service, according to a warning from the makers of the popular smartphone. Research in Motion (RIM) issued an advisory with patches for multiple flaws in the PDF distiller service and warned and an attacker could exploit the issues by simply e-mailing a booby-trapped PDF file to a BlackBerry user. The vulnerabilities exist in the PDF distiller of some released versions of the BlackBerry Attachment Service component of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server:"

"Every day thousands of people download new applications onto their smart phones without much care for the terms of service they so easily agree to. What most of these people don't know is they may be volunteering information and allowing for companies to gather data without their consent. Recently a company called Pinch Media was charged with being a little too invasive when it comes to gathering information through their iPhone apps. According to one iPhone developer, applications using Pinch Media can retrieve information like your phone's personal ID number and can work in conjunction with other applications like Facebook to determine your gender, birth year and even your exact longitude and latitude. Pinch Media has been accused of gathering information that has nothing to do with its applications. Instead, they have been using this data collection for advertisements and other marketing purposes. Worse, is that this information is often taken without the consent of the user and more often than not does not allow the user the option to stop the information gathering. Pinch Media has fought back by arguing that they are completely within their rights to retrieve the information as long as the user gives consent when they agree to the terms of the application. Regardless of whether or not the information they gathered is being used for good or ill mannered purposes one thing is certain. Smart phone users should pay more attention to the terms of service they agree to. A simple visit to a software developer's web site can be the difference between you using your applications and your applications using you. Take the time out to read the fine print, and if you aren't sure about something - email the company directly with your questions or concerns."