[mblware]

Hi there, just wanted to announce the latest app from mblware: mblVault

mblVault is a password protected, secure, encrypted location on your BlackBerry Smartphone to store your most sensitive data.

All files and filenames stored in mblVault are encrypted for maximum security. These files become accessible only after entering your password and viewing them directly with in the mblVault application.

If your phone is lost or stolen, the data will not be accessible to anybody else, even if it is plugged in to a USB cable, and browsed on a computer.

Current solutions suffer from a huge security issue in that anyone with access to the phone can navigate through the file system to access your "protected" files.

mblVault does not suffer from this vulnerability since it encrypts all files and filenames that get put in the vault. This way even if someone can navigate to the file, they can't see the name or read the contents of the file.



mblVault is available across the entire MobiHand store network for $3.99
mblVault - Personal Productivity Blackberry Software

[eldergod]

What type of encryption, I can find no specs.

[mblware]

Developer Response - "It uses an RC4 encryption algorithm modified for increased speed and for use on something with limited resources like blackberries."

My personal recommendation is if you had to ask this, mblVault is probably not the solution for you. mblVault is a fast, easy, cheap way to securely store, encrypt, decrypt, and view sensitive files. If you have highly classified data or something you'll probably need something different. I'm not sure if anything is out there for that type of thing, but I doubt it will be cheap. Maybe a custom solution?

[dookie45]

Ok, I just bought the app, Why is there a limit of 8 files at a time to import? I have a folder with much more than that, its going to take me hours it move them all into mblVault, Is there a faster or easier way of encrypting many files and folders?

Filelock did that with ease, sort of.

This limitation should have been stated in the description.

[mblware]

Ok, I just bought the app, Why is there a limit of 8 files at a time to import? I have a folder with much more than that, its going to take me hours it move them all into mblVault, Is there a faster or easier way of encrypting many files and folders?

Filelock did that with ease, sort of.

This limitation should have been stated in the description.

The reason you can only select a certain amount of data at a time is because your phone only has so much memory, it's a limitation of the BlackBerry itself, not the application.

And filelock can do this because to my knowledge, all they do is change the extension of your "protected" file to .lok.

Example: picture.jpg becomes picture.jpglok, so your phone doesn't recognise it as a valid picture/mp3 etc. and therefore doesn't display it in the file listing. If you were to plug your phone into the computer with a usb cable, you can access the files, and see for yourself that if you change the .jpglok extension back to .jpg, the file is totally accessible.

We're encrypting the file so that you cannot do this with mblvault. You can plug it into a usb cable, and the files, and filenames are not accessible.

That's why our app uses more memory while processing than filelock.

Chad.

[dookie45]

Even though, all this is pointless if it takes you hours to 'protect and unprotect' your files

Would have been nice to have it encrypt a bunch at once and just leave it alone to work, but 8 at a time? That doesnt work for a lot of people.

I see how this would be helpful if you want to encrypt 8 or less files. This really should have been in description. Feels like a shareware program.

[mblware]

Even though, all this is pointless if it takes you hours to 'protect and unprotect' your files

Would have been nice to have it encrypt a bunch at once and just leave it alone to work, but 8 at a time? That doesnt work for a lot of people.

I see how this would be helpful if you want to encrypt 8 or less files. This really should have been in description. Feels like a shareware program.

I forwarded your concerns to the lead developer and here's the response he gave.

Response:

While I understand where he's coming from, you have to understand that this is a cellphone we're ultimately talking about. Not a desktop or laptop computer. The amount of resources on these devices is very limited. mblVault uses separate threads when processing files in order to speed up the encryption process and make an overall better faster experience for the user. On these devices you can't just go and open 100 threads... and running encryption on 100 files consecutively is unacceptable as it consumes resources for too long. We had to make a choice to either hog all the phone resources and potentially interfere with other phone operations or to limit the amount of concurrent import operations allowed. We felt and still feel that 99% of the users would rather encrypt small groups of files and still be able to use their phone.

It's a bit technical but you can see why he didn't allow you to do what you're wanting to.

[mblware]

Also RIM offers full encryption that comes with your phone. So if you really want to you can encrypt every file on the phone. If you try this you will see how slow things get and how long the encryption process takes. And videos etc. will not be usable. So you really have 3 choices.

Very Fast, minimal protection
Medium Speed, Medium Protection
Slow, Maximum Protection

Each person and situation is different. But you can protect yourself any of the 3 ways.

[dookie45]

Thank you for your response.

I understand the limitations of the phone, and why things are the way it was set. And like you said "this is a cellphone we're ultimately talking about", If anything that needs maximum protection shouldn't be on a phone anyways. Phones are small and they do get lost, forgotten, and stolen.

I appreciate your application and the niche it fills, that is why I bought it. But to find out its limitations after purchasing it is not right. I hope you understand where myself and many of your paying customers experience.

Maybe in your future versions, the program should ease up on protection for speed, or give the user the choice.

I bought this program to protect the many photos of prototype items here at work using the camera on my phone. Each of my projects have about 20 photos of each, so yes they are sensitive, but not too sensitive that I need to spend hours encrypting them.

[drumzalicious]

Thank you for your response.

I understand the limitations of the phone, and why things are the way it was set. And like you said "this is a cellphone we're ultimately talking about", If anything that needs maximum protection shouldn't be on a phone anyways. Phones are small and they do get lost, forgotten, and stolen.

I appreciate your application and the niche it fills, that is why I bought it. But to find out its limitations after purchasing it is not right. I hope you understand where myself and many of your paying customers experience.

Maybe in your future versions, the program should ease up on protection for speed, or give the user the choice.

I bought this program to protect the many photos of prototype items here at work using the camera on my phone. Each of my projects have about 20 photos of each, so yes they are sensitive, but not too sensitive that I need to spend hours encrypting them.

So you cant encrypt the folder itself?

[mblware]

You can create folders inside mblVault, then import files into that folder up to 8 at a time. This is a limitation because BlackBerry's have a 15 open file limit on the phones. This is a limit across all applications on the phone. There can never be more than 15 files open. So mblVault forces you to import files only, and at a max of just over half the total allowed by the system. This way other programs can still open files and operate on them (which is a very common thing).