British Telecom conducted a study of used BlackBerry devices that had been sold and discovered that the security concerns of the previous owners were, well, pretty much non-existent.
In 43% of cases, there was information still on the smartphone that could pose a risk to the organization that had owned it, while almost 25% contained information that could allow the previous owner and employer to be identified.
All too often the study found that the phone’s built-in security tools, such as encryption, were not even switched on, according to Vnunet.
In a statement, Andy Jones, head of information security research at BT, said:
“Given the level of exposure that the subject of security and identity theft has recently received, and the availability of suitable tools to ensure the safe disposal of information, it is difficult to understand why organizations are not taking the necessary precautions when disposing of handheld devices."
"These everyday items now contain sophisticated digital memory capable of storing huge amounts of sensitive data. Organizations must ensure that adequate procedures are in place to destroy any data and to check that these procedures are effective.”
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