August 30, 2006
Sold Cell Phones Share Your Secrets
Selling your old phone - or recycling it - can be like handing over your diaries, according toThe Associated Press.
"All sorts of sensitive information pile up inside our cell phones, and deleting it may be more difficult than you think.
A popular practice among sellers, resetting the phone, often means sensitive information appears to have been erased. But it can be resurrected using specialized yet inexpensive software found on the Internet.
A company, Trust Digital bought 10 different phones from leading manufacturers on eBay this summer to test phone-security tools it sells for businesses - and found:
-- 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.
-- Bank accounts and passwords.
-- Details of prescriptions and receipts for one worker's utility payments.
The recovered information was equal to 27,000 pages -- a stack of printouts 8 feet high."
Related stories:
-- Stolen Cell Phone and Breaking Down Boundaries
-- $ 20'00 phone bill after woman's phone was stolen from recycling bin
-- Porn sent to new cell phone - but cell phone number was recycled
-- Getting a new Cell Phone and the Old Owner's Subscriptions
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