After our post about how the upcoming Apple iPhone could start a sea-change toward handheld computing, we are reminded that technology can be used for good or evil. The simple fact that there are nearly 1 billion cell phones makes them a tempting target for all sorts of malefactors. There have been a few cell phone viruses, but they haven’t done any real damage.

The real threat comes from theft of PDAs, laptops, and portable media, according to this article. The kicker is that an estimated 60 percent of laptops and PDAs contain unprotected sensitive or confidential information. That means potential liability if that information is customer or personnel data.

So lock down your portable devices, using physical locks, data encryption, strong passwords, and a harsh glare if necessary. We have more than a few horror stories of clients calling us to do audits because they think some computer equipment has gone missing. Usually, their intuition is correct, but the problem is even worse than they thought.