Fogie begins by pointing out that, unlike Windows XP, which is actually fairly transparent, it's not easy to figure out what's even running on a Windows Mobile device. This means that the typical user is "relatively blind about what their device is doing," writes Fogie.
The thrust of the paper is that far too many software vendors are careless about how they store their customers' sensitive information. In many cases, passwords are simply stored as plain text. Even when encryption is used, the algorithms are often either trivial or flawed, according to Fogie, who offers numerous detailed examples.
Finally, Fogie offers a number of suggestions for properly securing mobile devices, including: making use of Windows Mobile's password protection feature; encrypting data with the Microsoft Crypto API; and exercising simple common sense and caution.
The complete whitepaper is available
here.
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