Law Office Technology

The iPhone is Secure Enough

I read an article about iPhone Security on the blog Ride the Lightning, which decried the iPhone and suggested that it not be used because of security flaws.  The main problem I have with articles like these is that my clients read them and immediately come after me for suggesting that they use an iPhone.  Obviously I am not immune to this, as the firm Strong & Hanni immediately banned the use of iPhones after reading this blog. 

In the post, there are some links to YouTube that show how easy it is to hack into an iPhone.  Since the post did not suggest what phone was totally secure, I decided to search YouTube to find the un-hackable phone.

No Blackberry (except for the Blackberry, the NSA spent four months making hacker proof for the President.) So there you go, get elected president and you can use your Blackberry.

No Windows Mobile

No Palm Pre, plus read this article: http://www.precentral.net/secure-hand-pre-and-security

What about Desktops?

No Windows XP

No Mac

There are no videos on how to hack a legal pad or typewriter, so these might be the only options for a totally secure firm.

To put matters into perspective, any geek off the street can hack into an XP Machine.  So if you have a desktop or laptop running XP, it is more unsecure then an iPhone or Blackberry.  Download The Ultimate BootDisk, burn it to a CD and you can easily boot to an XP machine and change all the passwords.  I used to have to do this all the time to help clients recover their data.  I guess you have to ask yourself, if you lose your iPhone, is the next person that picks it up going to be able to:

“First off you “jailbreak” the phone by placing it into recovery mode and installing a custom RAM disk to the iPhone.  Jonathan mentions that the tools are only available to law enforcement (nice thought, but not so); but also acknowledges that it is fairly simple to develop your own. Several products like Red Sn0w and Purple Ra1n are freely available to “jailbreak” the phone. You then install a Secure Shell (SSH) client to port the raw disk image onto your computer.”

If you have password protected your phone, the person that finds your iPhone also has to be able to:

“Jonathan has another demo where he replaces the passcode file with one that contains a blank password, effectively removing the unlock code.”

Now if you are attorney Michael Clayton and U-North has a crack team of ex CIA types bugging your law partners phones and killing them,  you probably want to dump what ever mobile device you have and conduct all meetings in a shower with the water going full blast.  For the rest of us, here are some steps to make your iPhone more secure:

1.  Password lock your iPhone.  Settings –> General –> Passcode Lock. 

This will make you type in a 4 digit password every time you want to use your iPhone.  After 10 failed attempts the phone will erase itself.  I know there is a way to hack this, but the average joe six pack that finds your iPhone will probably not know this.  One of the basic rules of security is to put in place obstacles that will make hackers look for an easier target.  This is one of those obstacles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Purchase an app like Lost n Found.  These apps allow you to put some sort of contact information on the wallpaper of your iPhone.  If someone finds your lost iPhone, they will see a contact number.  If you have followed Step 1 and locked your phone, this is all they will see.  I guess it all comes down to your view of people.  Do you believe that most people are good and will attempt to return your phone, or are they NSA level hackers that will go through all your client data and sell it to opposing council and send an ethics complaint to the state bar?  It is a sick world.

3. Sign up for MobileMe so you can locate your phone via a website or remote wipe it if you lose it.  MobileMe will also allow you to send a text message to your lost phone and send out an annoying noise for two minutes so you can find it.  Now, if you lose your device, and the next person that finds it happens to carry around the tool that allows you to yank out the iPhone sim card, this will not work. 

If you follow these three steps, your iphone is going to be more secure then Windows XP, but not as secure as a typewriter. 

Is it the iPhone or AT&T

Very good article in the Atlantic about AT&T’s network.  They offer the following quote:

Roger Entner, senior vice president for telecommunications research at Nielsen, said the iPhone's "air interface," the electronics in the phone that connect it to the cell towers, had shortcomings that "affect both voice and data." He said that in the eyes of the consumer, "the iPhone has the nimbus of infallibility, ergo, it's AT&T's fault." AT&T does not publicly defend itself because it will not criticize Apple under any circumstances, he said. AT&T and Apple both declined to comment on Mr. Entner's assessments.

I have been on the AT&T network in Louisiana since I got a cell phone.   I have run the Treo 600, 650, 680, 750 on the network.  Until June of this year I was using the AT&T Tilt.  Since then I have been using the iPhone 3GS.  The multiple Treo’s and the Tilt never had the dropped calls and connection issues the iPhone had.  I always had a sneaking suspicion that it might be the iPhone hardware or the software radio.  By having one exclusive carrier, Apple has a huge advantage.  If the iPhone was available on Sprint and Verizon as well, and the coverage sucked, the finger could be pointed directly at Apple.  In Canada, the iPhone is available on the Rogers Network.  I wonder if they have the same issues that the US user has?

Use SQL to Change All Mobile Labels to Cell Labels in Amicus Premium Edition

A problem with Amicus Attorney is that it has too many labels for phone numbers

Having the labels Cell and Mobile ensures that half the firm will use one and the other half will use the other.  This becomes a big problem when setting up the Amicus Outlook Sync.  Outlook has a label for Mobile , but not one for Cell.

The iPhone has a label for Mobile as well, but not one for Cell

The end result is that I get clients complaining to me that they cannot find their customers numbers on their iPhones.  My solution is tell the clients to only use the Mobile Field in Amicus, which I have mapped to the Mobile Field in Outlook, which is mapped to the mobile field in the iPhone.  This is a great solution moving forward, but what about all the legacy contacts with phone numbers in the cell field?

Simple, we run a script in SQL that automatically changes all the Cell Fields to Mobile Fields.   

As we can see from above,  Cell is labeled 7 and Mobile is labeled 11.  Therefore when we run  the following script:

Use amicus
UPDATE dbo.Phone
SET PhoneLabelID = 11
WHERE PhoneLabelID = 7

All numbers labeled Cell will be changed to Mobile.

This is a lot easier then going into each label and changing all the contacts. 

Effective Email Management

I believe I have reached email nirvana using Outlook with Exchange and an iPhone 3GS.  Here is how I did it.

Work Flow:  As soon as an email is read, it is moved into a Folder with an a. in front of it.  Once an action has been taken, the email is then moved into either the Craig Bayer folder if it is personal or the Lawot folder if it is regarding work.

Create / Add to Ticket

When a client needs work done for us we create a ticket.  They should email support@lawot.com for this but if they happen to email me I move it into this folder.  My assistant watches the folder like a hawk and creates a ticket, assigns it to a consultant and moves the email to the Lawot Folder.

Workflow: Ticket is Created from the email immediately and then moved out of the folder.

Create Calendar

When some sends an email requesting an appointment I move it here.  Either my assistant or I will create a calendar event from the email by the end of the day.

Workflow: Calendar Event  is created from the email by the end of the business day and then moved out of the folder.

Create Contact

Anytime I receive an email that has a contact I need to create. 

Workflow: Contact  is created from the email by the end of the business week and then moved out of the folder.

Create KB

Law Office Technology uses an enterprise wiki called Brainkeeper for our knowledge base.  When I see an email that could be added to our knowledge base, like a best practices article I move it to this folder.

Workflow: Knowledge Base Article is created from the email by the end of business week and moved out of the folder.

Create To Do: Today, Week, Someday

Any email that needs a response is moved to one of following To Do folders.  If the email needs to responded to that day it is moved to Create To Do – 1.Today, if it needs a response by the end of the week, it is moved to Create To Do –2.Week.  If there is no deadline I  move it to Create To Do - 3.Someday.

Workflow: Today is responded to that Day, Week is responded to by the end of the business week and Someday has no time limit.  Once responded to the emails are moved to the Lawot folder.

Craig Bayer / Lawot

After the email has been processed, if it is personal, I move it to Craig Bayer and if it is business related it is moved to Lawot.

Facebook / Twitter

I have a rule created in Outlook that moves any notices from Facebook or Twitter to this folder.  I check it when I have time.

Traveling with the iPhone

Heading up to Seattle for the LSU Game and then Vancouver to do some work.  Since I have the iPhone now, there several apps I use to help me travel.

Flight Track Pro

http://www.appvee.com/t/flight-tracker-pro

Allows me to see where my airplane is.

Navigon

http://www.navigon.com/site/us/en/mobile_navigator/iphone

Turn by Turn GPS App

AroundMe

http://www.tweakersoft.com/mobile/aroundme.html

Lets me know what Bars, Restaurants, ect are around me

Since I am going to be in Seattle, I also downloaded a whole bunch of apps related to Seattle.

Iphone 3GS Case

I made the mistake about by a crappy iphone case from speck, which quickly fell apart.  I forgot that Seido makes the best products and I have quickly purchased the Seido Innocase II.  It looks good and is durable. 

http://www.seidioonline.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=CSR3YIPH3G%2DBL

What’s One Smartphone App You Can’t Do Without?

What’s One Smartphone App You Can’t Do Without?
from ABA Journal Posted May 27, 2009
By Molly McDonough

http://www.abajournal.com/news/whats_one_smartphone_app_you_cant_do_without/

If you have a Windows Mobile Phone, You Need Mobile Shell 3.0

Kind of over Windows Mobile, the iPhone is cooler and the Blackberry is more stable but I am keeping my brick.  SPB just came out with Mobile Shell 3.0 which really does add functionality to Windows Mobile for $29.

 

 

 

Check it out here:  http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/pocketpc-software/mobileshell/

Skype for the Iphone

Skype is now available for the Iphone.  It looks slick, my one phone call I tried on the train did not work.  I had bad reception so I will need to wait to Chicago to try again.

Mardi Gras caused me to Flash my Phone again

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=428261

I am now running Windows Mobile 6.5 on AT&T Tilt using the PDACornerUltimate Rom.  I am also using SPB Mobile Shell Again.  I am having no problems except some GPS issues.  Airtime works great and the battery life seems to be much improved.  I might need to change the radio as I have had a couple of dropped calls.  Hopefully I can stay with this version for awhile.