iPhone security software: iVault pro

Password and data managers are the most common iPhone security applications. The device is getting more and more users and they want to have secure data on the go. While browsing the AppStore, you will come across a number of similar private data managers and it is a tough job to chose the perfect one for you. Through our series of iPhone security software reviews, I hope you will see the good and bad sides of applications you are targeting for a buy.

iVault pro version I tested was 1.1 and can be downloaded from AppStore for $9.99. The download is around 1.6 MB.

Initial setup

After the application gets installed to your iPhone, you will need to setup your master password. A new security vault will be created and encrypted with the phrase you fill in. If you are interested in the tech specs, iVault pro uses 256-bit Blowish encryption.

Interface

After a successful login procedure, you will be presented with a good looking user interface sporting a list of predefined categories. These were created with flexibility on mind, so you will find a place for almost every type of data you would like to store.

The selection shown on the image below is just a portion of the predefined categories. Feel free to create your own – by clicking the + button, a creation form will open and you can start a new category by typing in the title and choosing an appropriate icon.

The category list looks quite characteristic to other similar apps, so I was positively surprised when I saw that you can also show your data by using better looking iPhone-like icons.

While the list view is set by default, going to the Settings menu will show you two switches that can change this appearance.

Working with data cards

Cards are sets of data that are placed within categories. When creating a new card you first need to chose a data type. For instance, if you want to write down some plain text, you would use a Note card with fields specific to just text input. On the other hand a Web site card will have the fields related to the address, username, password and more.

By default, iVault pro has more than 40 predefined cards and some of them are Social security number, picture, membership card, email account, bank account, plane info etc.

The good thing about customizing the cards is that you can work around the predefined fields by adding new or removing the existing ones.

All the cards you enter into iVault pro will be shown in the home screen (of the application, not iPhone). You will have the opportunity of customize the listing, as well as search through all the data. The search function works very well and crawls every piece of data stored in any of the card fields.

Log-off

The secrecy of data is the prime focus of the application so there are a number of security mechanisms that will protect your data.

• When iVault is open and iPhone turns off you will automatically get logged off.
• In Settings screen you can turn on automatic log-off which can be activated after inactivity time period of one, two or five minutes.
• When iVault pro is open and if you want to fast-close the application, you just shake it and voila – you are logged-off.

Secure data backup

Although I didn’t thoroughly test this option, I need to mention it as it provides an additional level of assurance that your data won’t be lost if bad karma happens. The developers of iVault pro created a rather nice web service called iVault for Web.

For a yearly fee of $7.99 (even less for two years; 14 days free trial) you will have the access to an online version of iVault which can be used in a number of interesting ways. The two most important ways include: synchronization with iVault pro and using the web service to faster edit all the data you want to place in your iPhone’s secure vault.

iVault pro is a powerful private data manager that provides extensive customization capabilities.