More and more I am finding that most law firms have reasonable and responsive security measures in place when it comes to protecting the office network and the information contained therein. I am less confident when it comes to security with portable devices such as a PDA or a smartphone like the Blackberry or Treo. While I have been a Blackberry user for sometime, and love it by the way, these devices come with their own set of security concerns.

Consider what kind of information an attorney would routinely store on a smartphone or PDA. For starters, one would expect to find email, voice messages, text messages, passwords, contact lists, electronic documents, and appointments. In all likelihood, there would be confidential personal and client information that no one would want to find in the wrong hands. As these kinds of devices continue to advance in terms of capabilities and power, and the line between handhelds and laptops continues to blur, the security risk will only increase. Further compounding the problem is the popularity of these devices and their size. They are easy to misplace or lose and they are easy to steal. A recent rash of iPod, cell phone and digital camera thefts at a local high school underscored the problem for me.

Don’t overlook this security concern. Use power-on passwords and enable auto-lock features so that a password is required in order to use the device after a period of inactivity and to synchronize the data with a desktop. If the device will have highly confidential information on it, investigate the availability of third-party utilities. SureWave Mobile Defense, as an example, comes with a feature that wipes all data from the memory of supported devices (Palm and Pocket PC) once a certain number of failed login attempts are exceeded. The current version of Microsoft Exchange provides for a remote wipe of a lost or stolen Windows PDA. Remember that if you have regularly synchronized your device, the destroyed data can be easily restored to a replacement device and you would be good to go. Other available products on the market enable data encryption and this would be a good alternative option.

While attacks from viruses and the like are rare with portable devices, they are not unheard of and they are likely to become more of a concern. In my mind, it’s only a matter of time due to the popularity and convenience of the wireless world. All major anti-virus companies have firewall products available for various mobile platforms. Consider installing one to help limit unwanted access to your device.

While, you may need to spend a little time investigating the security solutions that are available for your specific mobile device, given the potential consequences of not doing so, it’s worth the effort. If you are not already doing so, use the security features that come with your mobile device(s). In the end, this is about protecting client confidences and that’s an obligation not to be taken lightly.