Security and SD card encryption

[mudking]

First of all, I must admit I am a little paranoid about security. I have a pretty secure pattern lock on my phone that can be entered in a way in which the pattern overlaps itself and it is just about impossible to trace the smudges on the screen. Also, I have Autowipe on my phone with the settings set to wipe the phone and SD card if the wrong pattern is entered 5 times. I also have SMS wipe set to delete the phone and card, but the thing I don't like about that is that I will never know if the SMS was received. Also, my SD card is a sitting duck, all the finder of the phone has to do is pop out the SD card and they have everything. Not only does the SD card have all my documents, but it has my nandroid backups too, so essentially, it has my whole phone.

I come from Blackberry before Android, and it had encryption of phone and SD card with the screen lock. Android doesn't seem to have anything like that yet, but is there anything I can do to protect my SD card? Also, I am not really sure how secure the Android lock is, either. Is the pattern lock pretty secure? Is there an easy way to crack it if someone really wants the data on the phone? Ideally, I would like to be able to secure the SD card with the pattern lock too, so if someone takes the card out right away, the data is still locked, like on a Blackberry. Anyone have any recommendations on something like this?

Am I the only one who is this paranoid about my data?

 

[Yeahha]

I don't think android supports SD encryption currently. Tasker (an automation app) actually has a version that they can't release on the market because Google doesn't allow some ecryption software on the market, at least they did a few months back it may have changed now.

You aren't the only person worried about your data, but the enterprise support for Android hasn't really got that far off the ground, BB was really good for enterprise, the iPhone is as well, WM is also looking like a good platform for enterprise, but Android doesn't seem to want to do so, it is getting better than it has been but it isn't up to snuff compared to the competition yet.

 

[mudking]

Would you quit being so nice and helpful? It doesn't really feel like an internet forum when people are courteous. You could at least ask me if I've used the search bar or Google before answering. Just kidding!

Thanks for the reply. I use Tasker already, and I had seen some posts on another forum about using Tasker to encrypt items on the SD card. But from what I read, it isn't really a true encryption solution like what I am looking for. And I didn't know that it is not the same version I already have that I bought on the market. I will look into it. Tasker is a bit of a tricky app, and I really don't understand how to use it that well. Right now I use it for 3 functions, and that's about it.

As far as switching to another platform, that's probably not going to happen. I have already had phones of just about every platform and would never go back to any of them over Android. I could consider iPhone, but don't think I could actually go through with it. I only use Apple computers, but can't get into the iPhone.

I guess I am as secure as it can get on Andorid, then. Hopefully someone will come out with something to secure the SD contents better. Until then, I'll look into the Tasker options.

What about the security strength of the Andorid lock itself? I am on CM7, using a pattern lock. How secure is that? Do you know?

 

[Yeahha]

I personally think the pattern unlock is better than alphanumeric. I don't know if Google is allowing encryption apps on the market yet if they are then the version of tasker should be the same as the one from their site but I still don't know if you can use it to encrypt the SD

 

[mudking]

I looked into Tasker last night. They still aren't allowed to sell the encryption version on the market due to export laws against encryption technology. When I clicked on the encryption item in Tasker, it popped up a notification that that feature is unavailable with the market version. There is a link to their website where you can download the version they sell there, the one with the encryption feature. You use your market order number to validate the new version, it was really easy.

Moving on to what it does. The Tasker encryption feature will only encrypt files, not directories. So, unfortunately, it is not an entire SD encryption solution. However, if you just have a few files that need encryption, you can use Tasker to encrypt them and automatically decrypt according to whatever phone state or event you'd like, such as when you unlock the screen. If you are adding and removing files frequently, this solution is going to be difficult to manage. But if we are just talking about a few files here and there, it could work. I will continue to look for another solution that can encrypt directories, which doesn't seem to available yet.

 

[c0ldfusi0nz]

FYI, Android does support full encryption and SD encryption as of Gingerbread. At least, when my phone upgraded to Gingerbread, I found new encryption options under the 'Location and Security' preferences. I'd like to know more about how they work, though...

 

[mudking]

FYI, Android does support full encryption and SD encryption as of Gingerbread. At least, when my phone upgraded to Gingerbread, I found new encryption options under the 'Location and Security' preferences. I'd like to know more about how they work, though...

Hmmmm, anyone know if the debloated GB ROM has these features too? I couldn't see myself going back to a stock ROM.

 

[Yeahha]

If it is a feature of the OS then I would think it wouldn't matter what rom you were running.