Paris Hilton’s lost BlackBerry needs a kill switch

May 22, 2009 | Paul Boutin | Comments |

She did it again! After having her phone’s address book cracked a few years ago, Famous-for-being-famous heiress Paris Hilton lost her BlackBerry Thursday night at this week’s Festival de Cannes film convention in the south of France.

With smartphones replacing laptops as easy-to-lose repositories of confidential information, I wish AT&T and Verizon would offer something like Absolute Software’s Computrace system, which can remotely order a BlackBerry or Windows phone to erase files the next time it checks in over the wireless connection.

My own BlackBerry and iPhone are packed not only with the private cellphone numbers of tech company founders and execs, but with thousands of private emails about not-yet-disclosed business and product stories. I’d feel a lot better if I could promise my sources my lost smartphone was smart enough to take their secrets to its grave.

[Images from The Cleveland Leader, Absolute Software]

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About the Author, Paul Boutin

Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • Wil
    You can do the next best thing: add a password. Too many bad password attempts, and the phone wipes itself.
  • Haggie
    She should keep it with her coke and her Valtrex prescription. She never loses those...
  • neuronabhi
    Check out the website of MobileIron....could be a potential solution for all such mobile related issues.
    www.mobileiron.com
  • If your BlackBerry is connected to an Exchange Server account via BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server), you have this. Your admin goes into BES, clicks Kill, and your handset wipes itself and reboots. I've done it as a test and it worked instantly.
  • Kim
    Works with iPhones, too.
  • jb
    www.mobilearmor.com is another option for securing all mobile data, and has a self-destruct option.
  • JustCrazyLilLucy
    I'll bet she'll be the most popular girl now! Can you imagine the hundreds of "friends" who'll be pleased to know their private numbers are now compromised. The SIM card will have everything on it and it will certainly fetch a high dollar amount for anyone looking to make some quick cash. I know I've lost or misplaced my phones in the past...but, in her world, things like this are not easily forgiven.
  • Ren
    I've been using a free service called Mobile Defense (https://www.mobiledefense.com) on my Android phone. They are beta testing a Blackberry client.
  • Pate88
    there is an iPhone app that erases all personal data after 10 attempts to log in. it can also be customized to erase all data upon other criteria. it has been in the app store for about 4 months.
  • Woody
    Absolute software DOES offer a version of Computrace for Blackberries
    http://www.absolute.com/computrace-mobile/compu...
  • Great free advertising for Blackberry:
    Stars use Blackberry - not iPhone.
  • Ari
    They should use the WhereRYu app.
    WhereRYu allows you or your trusted family and friends to know where you (your phone) are located at all times
  • chrisdarbro
    You could check out Flexilis Mobile Security for this as well. (http://www.flexilis.com), They do remote wipe, and remote locate via google maps as well, among a lot of other stuff. They're on WinMo right now and Android and iPhone soon, I believe blackberry is in the pipeline.
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