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CIC Sign-On
Posted Tuesday, May 28, 2002 by PDA Center

With the increased use of PDAs in everyday life, comes the increased risk of theft, and even forgetfulness. It?s easy to forget your Pocket PC on the airport check-in counter, but not so easy to recover it once it?s stolen. While this program might not stop thieves, it will make it a whole lot harder for them to use your PDA.

One of the most secure forms of locking your data up is with a biometric lock (biometrics is the identification of individuals using biological traits, such as those based on retinal or iris scanning, fingerprints, or face recognition). CIC has developed a similar program. While not as secure as a fingerprint reader, it is definitely more affordable and more convenient. It doesn?t have any special unit; rather it?s just a piece of software that installs onto your device. Called Sign-On, it uses digital signature verification to unlock your PDA. This means that unless your signature matches the signature that you have pre-programmed onto it, you won?t be allowed access.

I tested out both the Pocket PC and the Palm versions of Sign-On. I first installed the Pocket PC version onto my Compaq Pocket PC. I installed it, and then performed a soft reset, as per the instructions. I turned it on, and looked around for a Sign-On icon. I finally found it under Settings. I checked Enable Sign-On, verified my signature, and created a password. I then restarted my Pocket PC, and before anything else, I had to sign-in. It worked perfectly. You have to set up a password just in case Sign-On fails to recognize your signature.

The Palm version was set up much the same way, except that the icon was in the applications menu. I followed the directions, restarted my Palm, and?no luck. It didn?t work. After performing a soft reset about 5-7 times, I gave up, and performed a hard reset, thereby completely erasing everything off the Palm, except the OS. I HotSynced all my files back, and tried again. This time it worked. I tried it out a couple of times, and found that for the most part, it recognized my signature. Unfortunately, it did come down to using the password a couple times, but that wasn?t generally the case.

To sum up, this is one the most safe and affordable ways to secure your PDA from prying eyes.