The Voice of Reason

There are many reasons to jailbreak the iPhone – Infinifolders, Infiniboard, Infinidock, Winterboard, etc. The list goes on and on. However, here’s a really practical reason to jailbreak – theft prevention. Available only on jailbroken phones, Cylay does just that.

With Cylay running on the iPhone, you can track the phone’s location in realtime, send messages to the phone’s display, lock the phone, make the phone emit an alarm that can’t be silenced, remotely backup the phone, remotely wipe the phone, download the phone’s recent calls list, make the phone unable to be turned off and take a photo with the phone’s camera and view the photo. The software icon can even be hidden from the springboard so that no one knows it is running on the phone.

As you can see there are a great deal of useful features with Cylay. For example, if you have lost your phone, you can log into your Cylay account and view a Google Maps image of the phone’s location as reported by the phone’s GPS. You can then make the phone take a picture to see where it is and, it if appears lost, remotely backup your data, make the phone sound an alarm or even wipe the phone thus protecting anything that you may have had one it.

1 year of service costs $19.99 and provides:

• No Server setup or Client fees.
• Update free to Cylay (within your subscription period).
• Unlimited access to Cylay services including backup and restore to your device (from the Cylay Server) .
• Unlimited the notices of warning unlimited to access.
• Data backed up to the Cylay Server and/or Google – including Contacts, Notes, Call log and SMS log.

Overall, I find Cylay to be a useful piece of software and it adds some peace of mind in knowing that should I lose or misplace my phone, I have a way to track it and protect my data by locking and wiping the phone.

Summary:

• Pro: Complete management software for theft prevention with many useful features including the ability to track the phone, backup/wipe data, sound an audible alarm and prevent the phone from being used or powered off. The software can be hidden from display so that no one knows it is running on the phone.
• Con: If someone steals your phone and powers it off, you cannot control it. You would have to wait until it’s turned on again. Cylay should include some way of only allowing the phone to go into a low power mode and thus remotely be powered on for tracking. If the icon is hidden, Cydia will still need to be locked to prevent detection and uninstallation of Cylay.
• Rating: 4 / 5. A very ambitious piece of software that still has a few flaws from a security standpoint. It must include a way to lock Cydia and allow for remote power on to be fully effective.

Sample management screen:

Filed under: Apple iOS, Reviews, Technology | Tagged: apple, GPS, iPhone, Technology, theft prevention |