iFortress encrypts and password protects iPhone & iPad files

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 08 December 2011 12:52

Your IT - Mobility

Australian security service and technology company, CommandHub, has released an iPhone app, iFortress, that enables users to secure email messages, text and other types of content files in encrypted form protected by 256 bit password security.

"We created iFortress to be a Fort Knox for your files," said Richard Cousins, chairman of CommandHub. "The app is designed to protect your private files using multiple levels of advanced security technology in case your iPad or iPhone was lost or stolen'¦It requires a strong password and - if lost or stolen - repeated password failures activate a 'poison pill' that completely erases all data within it."

According to CommandHub "To protect private information, users place it inside the iFortress app's data vault. Documents and files can be imported from other apps or directly from iTunes.

"Users can create notes securely within the app using its built in note-taking tool. They can also take photos and place them directly in the vault. For quick access, documents can be viewed from within the secure vault."

iFortress supports a variety of document and image types, including text, PDF, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Keynote and Pages documents. It also opens web pages (HTML files) and popular image types such as GIF, JPEG and PNG. Secure files can be organised within folders and can be emailed directly from iFortress. They can also be opened and annotated from within the secure vault.

iFortress uses CommandHub's patented CommandVault technology that underpins its document security products and services for the corporate market.

CommandHub started in 2002 and specialises in the secure distribution of documents under a software as a service model. much of its business comes from providing a secure document distribution service for sensitive company information such as board papers, and for exchange of documents between organisations involved in mergers and acquisitions.

It made its first foray into the iOS device market in June this year when it launched the CommandHub Mobile Vault application to enable documents to retrieved in encrypted form from CommandHub's central repository, viewed and if necessary edited on the mobile device and then securely uploaded. CommandHub had offered this functionality for PCs, Macs and BlackBerries for several years. Managing director Phillip Mulley told iTWire at the time that an Android version was also under development.

The iFortress app costs $US9.99 from the Apple App Store. It runs on an iPhone 3GS, 4 or 4S, iPad Touch 3rd or 4th generation and iPad. It requires iOS 4.3 or later.