A study which combed over 160 BlackBerrys revealed that many of them still had sensitive information such as financial, banking, and corporate details still on them. Based on what they could dig up, the researchers could figure out who the employer and previous owner were on a quarter of the devices, while while the data on 43% of the devices could threaten the companies in question. This is fairly surprising, since enterprise IT admins have the ability to remotely wipe BlackBerrys so long as the server software is up to date. If BlackBerry, one of the most security-conscious handsets out there, is having issues keeping sensitive material under wraps, I wonder how other platforms would fare in a similar study.
“These everyday items now contain sophisticated digital memory capable of storing huge amounts of sensitive data. Organisations must ensure that adequate procedures are in place to destroy any data and to check that these procedures are effective.” [said Andy Jones, head of information security research at BT, in a statement supporting the study].
Let this be a lesson to all of you selling off old phones – be sure to wipe ’em good and proper beforehand, especially if it’s a company device.
[via TechCentral]