NEWS & EVENTS
Scott Jones Provides Insight on Protecting Your Cell Phone & PDA Information
CHICAGO, IL - Sept. 5, 2006: Forensicon is pleased to announce
that Scott Jones, Senior Forensic Examiner, was interviewed by Judy Garcia
of WGN-TV on Thursday, August 31, 2006.
The focus of the interview was third party access to personal information stored on PDAs and cellular phones.
Your PDA and cell phone contain sensitive and valuable data. If you do not take steps to eliminate this data prior to giving the phone away or selling it online, you could be giving away a gold mine of potentially useful data that hackers would love to have in order to sell or reuse it themselves.
The following is additional detail that can help you as a cell phone or PDA user to protect yourself:
How can you protect yourself?
Consider the following:
Deleting Files:
Deleting a file from a computer, as well as deleting a phone number from a phone or PDA does not mean that the data is fully deleted and not recoverable. Until deleted data is overwritten at least once by new data, it cannot be considered deleted and unrecoverable.
Hard Reset:
For cell phones and PDAs, most makes and models have some form of "hard reset" function whereby you can cause the device to return to factory default settings and "erase" the data. Call your phone company or refer to your owner's manual for complete details on how to perform this task. Remember, though, that this does not necessarily erase anything if the old data is not overwritten.
SIM Cards:
If your cell phone or PDA has a SIM card, remove it and destroy it or reuse it in your new device (if you can). Some cross-cut shredders can shred credit cards in addition to paper, and you may be able to use one of these to dispose of your SIM card. A simpler way would be to use a pair of tin-snips to cut it into small pieces.
Dummy Data:
For cell phones, if a hard reset option does not exist, you may have to manually delete every phone number. Then, consider entering some dummy numbers such as (123) 456-7890 with contact names such as ABC. Do this many times. The hour or so you spend doing this now could save you hours of frustration, heartache, and legal bills later.
Let It Drain:
Many PDAs and cell phones operate on one simple principle: no power = no data. Although newer devices have methods of overcoming this issue, many older PDAs and cell phones would lose their data when their batteries were drained of power. After you have performed a hard reset and entered dummy information into your old phone or PDA, be sure to leave it powered on and let the battery power drain.
How long? The longer, the better.
Scott Jones possesses the CompTIA A+ certification, Guidance Software's
EnCE (EnCase Certified Examiner) designation, and Paraben Software
Corporation's Certified PDA Examiner designation.
In addition to his various certifications, Mr. Jones' professional
experience in computer forensics and computer science enables him to be an
instructor at Wilbur Wright College in Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Jones teaches
computer forensics for the Computer Security & Forensic Investigations
program to students from the public and private sectors.
About Forensicon:
Specializing in trade secrets, employment litigation, and internal investigations, Forensicon is a computer forensics firm that provides expertise to the top law firms in the U.S. as well as corporations large and small. Forensicon offers nationwide computer forensics services for plaintiff, defense, as well as special master neutral third party representation. The firm has represented numerous Fortune 500 companies and other large privately held corporations wanting to defend against or prosecute claims of intellectual property theft. For more information, contact Forensicon at 888.427.5667, email us as contact@forensicon.com or visit our web site at: http://www.forensicon.com/
