Category: Mobile Phone

Mobile phone security

Recover deleted data on Android phones with Undelete App

Undelete is a data recovery app for Android phones that needs root permission to operate, it lets you recover data erased from your internal Android phone memory and external SD cards, it only supports the FAT format, this is the most used format in smartphone memory cards. The app can recover any kind of data, images, audio, video, text, zip, etc. It only works if the erased data has not been overwritten yet, if you saved a new file on the empty space after erasing the data or securely wiped the file using a data shredding app, the files won’t be recovered.

Android phone Undelete App

After installing this app you will be asked about the memory card where you want to recover data from, click on “Scan storage” and the app will start scanning the selected memory card (internal or external), the scan shows the file path, size and name, to recover the file simply tap on “Restore“, if you have many files on the recovery window you can use the search feature. Recovered files are placed on the directory they resided in before being erased.

Undelete is a good free alternative to Hexamob Recovery PRO, another Android phone undelete app, but I don’t know if Undelete will still be free once it comes out of beta stage (trial), if the app is successful there are plans to add support for EXT4 formatted cards, a filesystem often used in Linux. The developer claims to succesfully have tested this undelete app on Incredible S, Nexus S, Xoom, Transformer, Sensation, Galaxy S I/II, Galaxy Ace, Desire. On Tegra devices it only supports external SD memory cards.

Tip: If you are using an external SD memory card for data storage, you should be able to plug it into your computer and use standard Windows data recovery tools.

Visit Undelete Android GooglePlay

21 November, 2011
Secure free Android firewall Droidwall

This security app consists of a front end application implementing Linux IP tables (IP packet filtering at kernel level) to stop unauthorized outgoing Internet connections, unlike other so called “Android firewall” applications that only block SMS messages and calls, Droidwall really blocks app Internet access.

A benefit of blocking apps Internet access, besides security, is that you will not waste your bandwidth and battery with unknown call home data connections that some developers embed in their apps, Droidwall lets you turn off 3G and Wifi access, with 4G support, for any application, if you don’t trust an app installed in your smartphone disable its Internet access, you can log what app is accessing the Internet and review it later making sure there are no malicious hacking or unwanted Internet activities going on in your phone.

Droidwall can be password protected so that only the phone owner can change the settings, it is easily configurable, with a whitelist mode where nothing is allowed onto the Internet and any app desiring Internet connection will need an approval first, and a blacklist mode where Internet access is available for all apps and the user needs to select what applications to block.

Free Android firewall Droidwall

Droidwall default firewall method is the whitelist mode which is safer, if you modify the settings make sure to tap on “Apply rules” after the changes or they will not take effect. This Android firewall app does not work in the background continuously consuming battery, once the rules have been saved the app gets out of the way and will not waste battery power.

Note: App requires a rooted device for installation.

Visit Droidwall at GooglePlay

11 July, 2011
Clear Android phone private data with History Eraser

This Android phone privacy app will clear your smartphone data with a couple of clicks, it can be configured to erase just a few logs instead of all of them, in one of the screens you select what needs to be erased, on the other you confirm you want the data gone, and that is it, a very easy to operate app that will not only protect you from data leakage if someone access your Android phone without your authorization, it will also gain extra space and free memory.

Android app History Eraser

Clearing up your mobile browser cache can also help making websites to work, by clearing the cache you are forcing a re-download of the data instead of using the cached stored files which might be have been corrupted, History Eraser does not need root to operate. The Android phone History Eraser app can delete your search history, call logs, SMS text messages, clipboard, apps cache files, frequently called list, market search history, Google Map/Gmail/Youtube search history.

If you want to clear Android Phone cache manually: Settings>Applications>Manage>Market>Clear Cache

Visit History Eraser at GooglePlay

29 June, 2011
Android SSH Tunnel hides your smartphone IP

You can surf the Internet anonymously using your Android phone installing this free open source app called SSH Tunnel, besides hiding your Android IP for privacy, if you live in China or any other country that censors the Internet, the SSH Tunnel will get around the filter.

SSH Tunnel app has a very easy to use interface, you can create profiles and separate networks using different SSH settings, if you are concerned about privacy you can enable traffic tunneling of all of the installed Android apps (with root access), if you don’t have root access you can still configure single apps to proxy the data transmission, Internet browser being the most obvious.

Android app SSH Tunnel

This app will work everywhere, but it has been designed with the intention to help people in countries with Internet filtering to get around it and it comes with a DNS Proxy to solve the DNS Pollution problem in China, it can also be used by people from outside the USA to listen to restricted music sites like Slacker Radio or Pandora, only available in North America, all you need besides this app is a SSH proxy server provider, most proxy services nowadays only offer VPN, there are few SSH tunnel providers left, one of them is VPNSecure, alternatively just get a shell account that allows SSH tunneling.

Visit Android SSH Tunnel homepage

21 May, 2011
GuizmOVPN an OpenVPN applet for the iPhone

GuizmOVPN is an OpenVPN GUI for the iPhone, it has designed to be easy to setup, configure and run, a background daemon runs the tunnel. GuizmOVPN is a premium paid for applet and it includes a 7 day trial period.

Unfortunately this applet can not be found at the official App Store and it requires a jailbroken iPhone, the reason why it can be found at the App Store is that GuizmOVPN needs to use a background process to keep the VPN tunnel active when the GUI (Graphical User Interface) is closed as well as running external commands to modify the network configuration.

GuizmoOVPN iPhone VPN applet

Note: Jailbreaking your iPhone is not condoned by Apple and it will invalidate your iPhone warranty.

Visit GuizmoOVPN homepage

12 January, 2011
8 antivirus software for smartphone protection

AVG Mobilation: This free Android applet will identify and clean viruses, schedule antivirus scans, check Android applets for viruses before install, lock and wipe content, and locate stolen or lost mobile phones using GPS. There is also a paid for version with even more features.

Android mobile phone antivirus

Kaspersky Mobile Security: In addition to protect your mobile device from viruses it can locate your lost or stolen mobile phone, protect your privacy and encrypt your files and folders. Kaspersky Mobile security can also block or wipe your mobile phone remotely if its lost or stolen.

Kaspersky Mobile Security

ESET Mobile security: This mobile phone antivirus solution combines heuristics, antispam and firewall to protect you in real time from malware handcrafted for mobile phones. ESET Mobile security is available for Windows 7 and Symbian smartphones.

ESET Windows Mobile antivirus

Norton Mobile Security: This smartphone antivirus will protect you against annoying unwanted calls and messages as well as the usual mobile device loss and theft protection. It can lock your smartphone remotely if this has been stolen and the security software itself it is light, fast and easy to use.

Norton Mobile Security

Avira Android Security: Android security suite with location tracking, remote wipe and lock, owner notification when the phone is lost, whoever fins your smartphone only has to tap a button to contact you on another number, device administration that checks the battery and gives you hardware information about your smartphone.

Avira Android security suite

NQ Mobile Antivirus: Multiplatform mobile device antivirus that works in Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian devices, full protection against viruses, malware and trojans. It also protects your privacy.

NetQin smartphone antivirus

LookOut Mobile Security: Multiplatform mobile antivirus for Windows Mobile, Android and Blackberry. LookOut mobile antivirus free edition will protect you against viruses, malware and spyware as well as back up your contacts, a more advanced premium edition gives you remote mobile phone locking capabilities.

LookOut Mobile Security antivirus

BullGuard Mobile Security: Complete smartphone protection against viruses, spyware and digital fraud. BullGuard Mobile Security supports most mobile phone brands and includes GPS mobile device tracking in case of losing it.

BullGuard mobile antivirus

4 January, 2011
Kryptos: Voice encryption mobile phone applet

Kryptos is a premium iPhone applet to encrypt your phone calls, the company behind it is planing on launching Kryptos for Android in January 2011 and Kryptos for RIM (Blackberry) in February 2011. This encryption mobile phone applet is very easy to manage and it will provide you with sound secure voice communications for a very reasonable price, Kryptos will work over any network, including 3G, 4G and Wifi.

After the user has downloaded the Kryptos iPhone applet from iTunes on their iPhone he needs to activate the account with Kryptos. Each user receives an individual ID, calls using the Kryptos applet will be secured using peer-to-peer encryption, the initial symmetric encryption keys exchange is made using 1024-RSA and after that calls are routed with AES256 encryption.

Kryptos mobile phone call encryption

There are no backdoors in this encryption applet, your encrypted conversation cannot be decrypted by anyone other than the two parties participating on the Kryptos call session and the company does not keep any logs of the calls made, your phone applet will keep a record of call logs locally but they can be easily erased.

Note: Kryptos is not free and it requires a monthly fee.

Visit Kryptos Communications homepage

24 December, 2010