90. Protect Your Content  BEFORE YOU BEGIN 6 Password-Protect Your Device 87 About BlackBerry Security
 SEE ALSO 5 Lock and Unlock Your Device 88 Secure the SIM Card 89 Turn On the Firewall 91 Safely Store IDs and Passwords on Your Device 92 Register Your Device with StuffBak
In addition to password-protection, which prevents someone from accessing your BlackBerry device after it has been locked, you should consider content protection to take things to another level. This involves encrypting all the data on your device so it isn't in a recognizable format until you actually access it. Content encryption doesn't usually put a noticeable strain on your device in terms of processing delays, so it's not a bad idea to enable it if you're concerned about data security. 90. Protect Your Content 
Content compression goes hand in hand with content encryption and helps minimize the size of data. Content compression can be enabled with or without content encryption, and you should use it simply because it helps conserve memory. Unless you start noticing a significant delay in accessing data, I recommend using both content compression and content encryption for efficient and secure data storage. | 1. | Open the Tools Screen
Scroll to the Tools icon on the Home screen and click the trackwheel. The Tools screen appears, showing a list of tool options.
| | 2. | Open the Settings Screen
Scroll to the Settings icon and click the trackwheel. A list of options for which you can change the settings appears.
| | 3. | Open the Security Screen
Scroll to the Security option in the list of settings and click the trackwheel. The Security screen opens.
| | 4. | Enable Content Encryption The Security screen includes several options, but the one we're focusing on is Content Protection . Enabling this option causes your device to encrypt all the data stored on it, improving data security. To enable content encryption, scroll to select the Content Protection setting ( Disabled by default), double-click the trackwheel, and select Enabled from the pop-up menu that appears. Click to confirm the selection. After enabling content protection, you are immediately prompted to enable the handheld password.  TIP To quickly change an option without having to go through the two trackwheel clicks required to open a menu and select Change Option , press the Alt key to view a list of options. Then scroll to the desired choice and click the trackwheel to select it. An even faster shortcut involves cycling to the next available choice by pressing the Space key. NOTE The Content Compression option is somewhat related to Content Protection , and it is enabled by default. Generally speaking, you should leave content compression enabled because it helps conserve precious device memory by compressing your data. | | 5. | Enable the Handheld Password
To finish enabling content encryption (protection), you must agree to enable the handheld password ( assuming that it isn't already enabled). This is the password used to protect your device after it is locked (see 6 Password-Protect Your Device ). To okay this setting change, scroll the trackwheel to select Yes in the dialog box that appears and click.
| | 6. | Exit and Save Changes
Press the Escape button to exit the Security screen. If you enabled content encryption, you are prompted to save or discard changes. When prompted, scroll the trackwheel to the Save option and click to save the changes. Because you've now enabled the handheld password, you are prompted to enter the new password.
| | 7. | Enter a New Password Using the keyboard, enter the new password, making sure that it is at least four characters long. When you enter a password, each character is shown briefly as you type it before it is turned into an asterisk. This is helpful because your password will likely require different keystrokes depending on whether you use alphabetic or numeric input mode. Password entry is always carried out in multitap mode, but you can switch between alphabetic or numeric characters by briefly holding down the Next key ( * ). Alphabetic multitap mode is always selected by default when you enter a password, so I recommend sticking with an alphabetic password as opposed to a numeric one. TIPS Keep in mind that you will be entering the password every time you unlock your device, which is likely quite frequentlyespecially if you have the security timeout set to a low value or are using the Lock Handheld Upon Holstering option (see 5 Lock Your Device ). For this reason, you should specify a password you can enter quickly. I prefer thinking of it as more of a PIN code, which means sticking with the minimum of four characters. Alphabetic multitap mode is the default mode for entering passwords, which means you'll have to constantly switch to numeric mode to enter a numeric password or press the Shift key for each number. I recommend using an alphabetic password instead of a numeric one so you don't have to change to numeric mode every time you enter the password. As an example, "CUTE" is a much better password option than its numeric equivalent, "7321". Press the Enter key when you finish entering the password. Another screen appears, prompting you to verify the new password. Enter it again and press the Enter key. Your BlackBerry device is now set to encrypt its data and require a password for access. The data isn't encrypted until the device is locked. When the device is locked, you see a small open lock near the top of the screen that indicates that data encryption is taking place. When all the data is successfully encrypted, the open lock turns into a closed lock. | |
