Be Less Promiscuous On Wi-Fi

Use an uncommon network name to keep your iPhone from accidentally connecting to other routers.

When you connect to Wi-Fi, if no password is required to join the network, anyone can sniff your packets. This means that an eavesdropper within physical range of your network can listen in on anything that’s sent or received. If your iPhone is set to check email automatically, you might reveal sensitive data by joining such an open network, especially if you don’t use SSL. (If you do use SSL, intercepted communications will be garbled by that encryption.)

Under Settings > Wi-Fi, there’s an option called Ask to Join Networks. However, this option only does what it says the first time you connect; whether you have this option on or off, the iPhone will never ask before rejoining a network with the same name.
So, if you visit a network with a common name, like “linksys,” your iPhone will automatically join every network it discovers with that name. In a single cab ride, you could unintentionally expose your iPhone to dozens of networks with the same name.

If you use Wi-Fi at home, make sure your network has a unique name, so when you’re away from home, you don’t have to worry about someone else having the same name for their Wi-Fi network.

You can also tell the iPhone to stop automatically joining a nearby network by tapping Settings > Wi-Fi > The network’s name, then tapping Forget this Network.

If you plan to join an open network and aren’t using SSL in email, turn off automatic email checks by tapping Settings > Fetch New Data > Manually. Then join the network, and don’t check your email. Restrict your activity to things that don’t reveal sensitive data, like reading websites or playing Hold’Em.

Lock Your iPhone Access

Enable Show SMS Preview to see the beginning of an incoming text message before you’ve entered your passcode.

If you lose your iPhone, or if a thief manages to slip it out of your pocket, all of your email and data are in someone else’s hands. Stop them from peeking by locking your phone with a passcode.

It’s really easy to set up. Tap Settings > General > Passcode Lock, and set a 4-digit passcode by entering it twice. Just be sure to pick a different PIN than the one you use for your bank card.

Tap Require Passcode to change the duration of idle time before the iPhone asks for the passcode again, saving yourself from annoyance. As Apple suggests, a shorter time period is more secure. Chances are, you’ll be the one entering the code most frequently, so try to strike a balance between convenience and the need for security.

Keep in mind, however, that if someone wants to return your lost phone or contact your family in an emergency, they’ll be stuck at that input screen. To fix this, on your computer, use an image editor to create a picture containing your contact info. Email the graphic to your phone, and set it as wallpaper. Those details will appear behind the passcode prompt.

Use A VPN

If VPN setup gets too complicated, talk to your job’s IT administrator or VPN provider for help.

Suppose you’ve found Wi-Fi access that you don’t trust, but you really need to check your email. As with a computer, you can encrypt your traffic by using a Virtual Private Network. The VPN sends all incoming and outgoing data to a server on another network, all while using encryption. Most people use this to pretend that they are on a network that they’re otherwise not connected to, such as reaching an internal office file server while away. But it has the added benefit of encrypting the connection, making it useful for people that use lots of open Wi-Fi networks.

The iPhone supports three VPN protocols (each of which are good): Cisco IPSec, L2TP over IPSec, and PPTP. If you are already running one of these at home—great! But, if like most people, you’re not, you may want to consider renting a VPN. Some iPhone-friendly VPN providers are listed in VPN Providers Love the iPhone.

Securely Erase the iPhone

On the reset screen, only tap Erase All Content and Settings if you really mean it.

One of the features Apple touted about the iPhone 2.0 firmware update was the ability to remotely wipe all of the data from a missing or otherwise compromised iPhone, at least for corporate users. As we went to press, the only way to remotely wipe the iPhone was from a Microsoft Exchange server, and then only by an administrator on that server. For residential customers in the united States, there’s no way to remotely erase an iPhone by asking AT&T to do it.

If you decide to sell or give away your iPhone, it’s smart to erase it manually first. Tap General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. Connect your iPhone to a power supply first, because the process will eat up a lot of battery power as it overwrites the data. Apple says it takes about an hour per 8GB of space on the iPhone, so plan accordingly.

VPN Providers Love the iPhone

The iPhone’s built-in VPN client supports common VPN standards. Here are some VPN providers that cater specifically to iPhone users. Renting a VPN is not the same as getting Internet access. Rather, it provides a secure connection from your iPhone (or any other networked computer) to a VPN server somewhere else on the Internet, confounding any snoopers on an unsecured Wi-Fi network.

Company: Secure-Tunnel
Service: Secure-Tunnel VPN Mobile
Cost: $5.95 per month or $59.95 per year
www.secure-tunnel.com

Company: HotSpotVPN
Service: HotSpotVPN-1
Cost: $8.88 a month  or $88.80 a year
www.hotspotvpn.com

Company: WiTopia
Service: PPTP VPN
Cost: $39.99 per year as part of additional VPN bundle
www.witopia.net