stuckincincy Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 (edited) A word to the wise is seldom sufficient... "It's no secret that an old cell phone can betray yours By Ted Bridis Associated Press Published August 31, 2006 Experts warn that giving away your old cell phone may mean handing out a lot of personal information too. Sensitive information piles up inside cell phones, and deleting it may be more difficult than you think. Resetting the phone, a practice among sellers, often means sensitive information appears to have been erased. But it can be resurrected using specialized yet inexpensive software found on the Internet. Trust Digital of McLean, Va., bought 10 phones, all fairly sophisticated models, on eBay to test phone-security tools the company sells for businesses. Curious software experts at Trust Digital resurrected information on nearly all the used phones, including the racy exchanges between secret lovers. The other phones contained: - One company's plans to win a multimillion-dollar federal transportation contract. - E-mails about another firm's $50,000 payment for a software license. - Details of prescriptions and receipts for one worker's utility payments. The recovered information was equal to 27,000 pages. Many of the phones were owned personally by the sellers but crammed with sensitive corporate information, underscoring the blurring of work and home. "... http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationw...nationworld-hed Note: That link wants a registration (ugh) when I clicked on it from within this post. Sorry. Edited August 31, 2006 by stuckincincy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Senator Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 A word to the wise is seldom sufficient... "It's no secret that an old cell phone can betray yours By Ted Bridis Associated Press Published August 31, 2006 Experts warn that giving away your old cell phone may mean handing out a lot of personal information too. Sensitive information piles up inside cell phones, and deleting it may be more difficult than you think. Resetting the phone, a practice among sellers, often means sensitive information appears to have been erased. But it can be resurrected using specialized yet inexpensive software found on the Internet. Trust Digital of McLean, Va., bought 10 phones, all fairly sophisticated models, on eBay to test phone-security tools the company sells for businesses. Curious software experts at Trust Digital resurrected information on nearly all the used phones, including the racy exchanges between secret lovers. The other phones contained: - One company's plans to win a multimillion-dollar federal transportation contract. - E-mails about another firm's $50,000 payment for a software license. - Details of prescriptions and receipts for one worker's utility payments. The recovered information was equal to 27,000 pages. Many of the phones were owned personally by the sellers but crammed with sensitive corporate information, underscoring the blurring of work and home. "... http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationw...nationworld-hed Note: That link wants a registration (ugh) when I clicked on it from within this post. Sorry. 757015[/snapback] Yeah, saw that report on MSNBC site - pretty scary stuff. I guess the ol' sledgehammer is still the safest way to erase your sensitive data. BTW - had no problem with the link (didn't have to register) but here's the MSNBC story... Cell phones spill secrets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gross Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 Always interesting when a company that sells security products for cell phones "does a study to unveil" security issues on cell phones....You don't suppose that they have a product for sale that completely erases and/or secures said data... Not to say it isn't true, but... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Senator Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 Always interesting when a company that sells security products for cell phones "does a study to unveil" security issues on cell phones....You don't suppose that they have a product for sale that completely erases and/or secures said data... Not to say it isn't true, but... 757031[/snapback] Yeah, it does seem a bit like 'the fox guarding the henhouse'. The two leading firms in infosecurity consulting/computer forensics are VeriSign and Internet Security Systems (ISS - recently acquired by IBM). These are the guys that most large financial institutions and gov't agencies call to "stop the bleeding" when their systems get 'hacked'. VeriSign is the largest reseller of CheckPoint firewall software in the world. ISS is the market leader in intrusion detection software. Both are huge providers of managed security services. Think they might try to sell you some software while they're telling you how to "lock down" your infrastructure? Go figure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuckincincy Posted August 31, 2006 Author Share Posted August 31, 2006 Yeah, saw that report on MSNBC site - pretty scary stuff. I guess the ol' sledgehammer is still the safest way to erase your sensitive data. BTW - had no problem with the link (didn't have to register) but here's the MSNBC story... Cell phones spill secrets 757023[/snapback] Thanks for adding the MS-NBC link. The Chicago Tribune site asks me to register in spotty fashion. My wife and me have a pair of T-Mobile pay-as-you-go units, which works out well because of our very low usage. We gave them our old analog Motorola Star-Tac or whatever it was - they recycle them and give them away as emergency phones to folks like women who are being stalked or otherwise threatened. I don't know for sure, but I'd imagine they would clean out all the data from the donated units. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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