News

Encrypted data managers for the Zaurus SL-5x00 PDAs by Ian

Introduction

As soon as your data goes digital it becomes trivially easy to copy and trivially easy to encrypt - if your software allows it. I personally think that encryption should be a standard feature in any Personal Information Management (PIM) tool and I rate it as about level with backups in terms of what could be called "information age common sense". Even the pretence of security can go a long way on a PDA; someone finding your PDA on a bus or in just-returned rental car might be tempted to abuse a completely plain text list of your passwords and so on, whereas a hint of encryption will be enough to put most people off. Still, there's no need to compromise like that; this is the 21st Century.

Anyway, on the one hand I'm disappointed that encryption isn't part of the retail Zaurus system, but these niches are quickly filled by 3rd party developers, and after all, how do we know we can trust Sharp? OK, let's not take that trip down Paranoia Lane. Let's look at the options.

I will be reviewing a number of Zaurus SL-5x00 applications under this heading. Initially I found SafeDee, then I also discovered ZSafe and Keyring which I will discuss in the next installment. The only reason I'm reviewing SafeDee first (er, is that a joke?) is that it was the first one I found.

Part I: SafeDee from Bundu Technology Ltd. (v1.0.1 on retail SL-5600)

In the commercial corner we have SafeDee from Bundu Studios, implementing Blowfish encryption which is widely agreed to be "pretty darned good" (for more information on Blowfish, see this page). SafeDee is a password and personal data manager which can encrypt your data to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. It does a great job and is so nicely implemented that managing passwords is actually fun.

SafeDee can be downloaded in demo form from from www.handango.com and the full version (really just a key to unlock the demo) costs $15. The demo is doubly restricted in that it cannot import/export databases and is has a 30-day lifespan. Anyway, I think anyone would be able to get a very good idea of SafeDee within the 30 days.

This is a very nice piece of software. The front-end is clean, efficient, and needs no manual.

l
Startup screen	Options

NOTE: These screen shots have been produced using a variety of techniques and I also changed my settings, so the styles and colour schemes are not consistent. Do not adjust your set.

On the right are the options. I had a lot fun playing with the colours, and it wasn't until I started writing this review that I noticed you can define custom colours, which is even more fun. I wish all the Zaurus apps could do this. Does this actually matter? Not really, I suppose, but I am a programmer myself and I'm impressed by these extra features when they're so well done. It gives me confidence that the rest of the code is robust and that the developer wasn't working at the limit of his/her ability when the core functions were written.

Usage

Until you enter a password, you are prompted to do so each time you start the application. Blowfish is a good encryption system, but you should still bear in mind that a weak password can be guessed (in the worst case) or even "cracked" by a very determined attacker, at least this is the impression I get after a cursory bit of googling and reading around the subject. All I'm saying is, dont't use "password" as your password.

If you have entered a password, SafeDee will encrypt some fields of your data using this password. Next time you load the application these fileds will appear as asterisks until you re-enter the password. Any fields you chose not to encrypt will appear as plain text. You can see this for the unencrypted "frequent flyer" category on the left, and mixed in with encrypted data on the right, below. I also changed the background colours in between screen shots and... um... made up all the entries.

Unencrypted data	Mixed data

Similarly to the Zaurus' built-in ToDo List application, SafeDee lets you filter your records by category. By default, data are organised into 12 categories including "computer login", "bank account" and so on. You can add and remove categories easily, including up to six fields which can be optionally encrypted (although not independently, just all-or-none). In the example below I made up a slightly silly category for fruit (and was disappointed not to find any fruit-themed icons), but it also helps illustrate that this is not just about passwords. You could use it as a simple ToDo List manager, albeit without active date management. An encrypted "do list" is pretty much de rigeur for deep cover CIA operativesand twelve year olds alike, not to mention BargainPDA editors... Well, some of us anyway.

Custom category	Text export

Entering new records is painless; the category defaults to the currently filtered one, which saves a lot of clicking the first time you enter your data Before I started playing with SafeDee I used to keep most of my passwords, PINs, etc., in a text file which I encrypted using GPG. You could do the same on your Zaurus since it is a real linux computer, but it would be a bit of work. SafeDee makes it very easy to quickly add a bucketfull of new entries and quickly filter them as well as sorting by category or any of the fields.

SafeDee allows you to eport all your data as a text file (comma separated), which enables you to keep a definitive backup of all your data, and you can also reload this data if you need to after (e.g.) a ROM upgrade. You should print out this unencrypted list in case there's some sort of global disaster and all electronics stop working forever. Keep it in the fireproof safe behind the painting of your Grandmother, and even though there'll be no Internet, or money, or food, at least you'll know what your passwords were. Uh-huh. The text file export is shown on the right in the last pair of images.

I did encounter a couple of "freezes" which may be a result of my using a Zaurus SL-5600 rather than the 5500. Many applications including SafeDee come with varying degrees of disclaimer where the developers have not had access to a 5600 for testing. The problems I ran into only froze SafeDee, not the whole PDA, and were solved by killing the problem process. No data were lost, but I suspect that a novice user would be forced to reboot their machine. Anyway, the developer is looking at the problem.

You can configure SafeDee to auto-lock after a certain time, so you needn't worry about leaving it unattended as long as you set it to a reasonable time limit. Another nice feature.

Grins

Whereas I used to often resort to a few similar or identical passwords for all my accounts, I've found that now I can confidently store and recall many different passwords, I am being a lot more creative and I use a far wider variety of words and phrases, confident that I can get them all just by remembering my SafeDee password. This is not a feature of SafeDee - any equivalent application would have the same benefit - but it's a Good Thing.

Gripes

Not much to complain about here really. There's only one thing I would change about the current version, which is that the default fields of different categories are slightly inconsistent. For example, the fields of "computer login" are System, Username, Password, whereas for "web login" they are Description, URL, Username, Password. Since only three fields really fit onto the screen, I'd like the first three fields of all categories to be the equivalents of System, Username, Password. The rest can follow. It was easy enough to edit these fields manually though. My advice (to users) would be to put a little thought into which fields you want to see on-screen before you enter too much data, and to edit the titles accordingly.

I think you will also have to manually restore your field lists if you ever reformat your Zaurus or uninstall & reinstall SafeDee. That is to say, you can back up your data to a file but it doesn't record the custom fields or categories.

Conclusion

SafeDee is a nice solution to a simple problem, implemented with a lot more style and elegance than was absolutely necessary. Tune in again soon to see the reviews of ZSafe and Keyring.

Cons:

• Can export data but not custom field names (minor).
• Initial (default) fields are slightly inconsistent.

• Very easy to use
• Surprisingly stylish
• Easily customisable
• Clean, efficient interface