Phone Data found to be Rarely Safe

Encryption and resetting your phone has been found to not necessarily provide protection from Data Fraud. Research from Deloitte has found that reset phones or tablets can still have data found on them. They tested the theory under two separate parameters.

The first being on stolen phones and the second on factory wiped phones. The first scenario discovered owner\’s email addresses in 90% of the cases, passwords in 40% and in 75% of those tested data including the owners name and contact information could be retrieved. Perhaps most worrying of all was that in 25% of cases PPS numbers were discovered within the contacts or SMS mesages. Of those tested 50% were encrypted devices and 90% were password locked.

The second set up of factory wiping found the owners name in 75% of cases, 60% for contacts and email addresses and 30% had their passwords found. A huge 85% of the phones had text and chat logs discovered but PPS numbers were only found in 15% of cases. The devices included Apple, Blackberry, Android and Windows Phone.

The research was done to determine what data could be discovered and taken off first and second hand phones. They also recommended certain practices to protect your information against theft or when changing devices. This list included taking note of your IMEI number on your device so you can have your service provider deactivate your phone, encrypting your device, having a pass code and deciding carefully before downloading apps.