In these days of high vulnerability of cyber space and the amazing ingenuity of cyber crooks, the first test that any new gadget has to pass is one of security. No gadget or software can be 100 per cent secure. Still, there should not be any gaping holes that can be exploited for committing crime or to settle personal scores between its user and the intruder. Admittedly, like the iPhone, the iPad has only limited security options. While no major flaw in its structure has yet been reported, it has some weak features that should be kept in mind by prospective buyers. First, if stolen, it has no feature like the one in the iPhone that would permit the Administrator to lock it from an unauthorised possessor. The belief, however, is such a facility will be introduced once iPad use becomes widespread. Next comes the issue of encryption, which is one sure way of protecting data that has fallen into wrong hands from being compromised. The first reports are that iPad has the same encryption structure as the iPhone. At least one expert, Daniel Hoffman, CTO of SMobiles, is of the view that iPhone encryption is “worthless” and can be easily bypassed. If this were so, there are grounds to be anxious about iPad security. Also, the OS employed by both the gadgets allows only one-third of applications to run on the device at any point of time. It is therefore unlikely that any major security upgrade to run in the background is feasible at all. One major concern is ‘jailbreaking', an action by the user, after hacking the device, to install software not sold through Apple Store. And we must remember that jailbroken iPhones had recently undergone any number of malware attacks. One is, therefore, anxious that a similar fate should not befall the iPad.