Remote Lock Down the Nokia E71

One of the concerns that I hear repeated often is, ‘What happens if someone finds or steals my phone?’ The concern is definitely valid – we store all sorts of confidential information on our phones, and if someone were to gain access to our phones, they would likely have more information than we would like them to have. No worries, though, the Nokia E71 provides a built-in feature to remotely lock down the device, so that prying eyes cannot access your contacts, calendar, or anything else.

To set this up, you’ll need to go into the Tools folder, and open Settings. From there, open ‘General’, and scroll down to ‘Security’. Click once more to open ‘Phone and SIM card’, and scroll down to ‘Allow remote lock’. When you change this to ‘Yes’, you’ll be asked a series of questions:

First, you’ll need to specify a secret message. This is a word that you will send to your phone, from another phone, in the case that it’s stolen. This should be something unique, that you will remember. You will then be asked to re-enter the same word, for verification.

After that, you will be asked to enter the 5-digit security code (which is 12345). You can change this to a new, custom security code by choosing ‘Lock Code’ above the ‘Allow Remote Lock’ field. This can be any number, and will be the only way to unlock the device, so don’t pick anything obvious, such as 12345 or something. If the thief can guess it, then it was useless.

Once setup is complete, you are secure. In the case that your phone is lost or stolen, simply send an SMS from any phone to your phone, with your secret word in it to lock the phone down. Whoever has your phone will be unable to do *anything* on the phone until they have correctly entered the 5 digit security code to unlock the phone. This code will also be required if they power the phone off, or change the SIM card – there’s no way for them to get around it, so your information is safe.

Of course, this does not help you get your phone back, but at least your private information will be safe.

via E71blog.com