Saturday, December 16, 2017

Cell Phone Forensics On Cleaning Data

By Gary Cook


Mobile phones hold some of the most treasured secrets. Everyone wants to wipe out data from the handset before selling or giving it away. In the age of data recovery, you might be surprised years down the line when your secrets are displayed in public. Cell Phone Forensics experts have given their tricks on clearing data to eliminate worry about unnecessary exposure. Here are some of these tricks.

Use the factory reset option. This is the first resort for most people and devices. It is meant to clear all information and settings that have been altered since the handset began to be used. Some phones work by locking handsets from setting alteration. This might not work if you are selling or giving it since it will be useless to the receiver. However, it still provides a reasonable deal of information protection.

Factory reset is not similar to wiping out information. This method works by hiding the information in a way that normal operations of your phone cannot retrieve it. It takes advanced technology to retrieve it. If a person is intent on retrieving this information, it will still be possible leading to compromise.

Modern technology has enabled data encryption to protect your information. Certain phones offer this option as a default setting while you have to activate the function on other phones. Encrypted messages demand a retrieval code to access the information. Without this code or a secret PIN, your information will be safe. You have to ensure that you do not share this key or code with third parties.

While encryption is default for certain handset models, there are apps with encryption options inbuilt. All information transferred through these apps is usually protected. However, hacking has made it uncertain to claim safety through encryption. With widespread hacking even of highly protected platforms, encryption provides protection only to a certain extent.

Data can be protected by overwriting it. Devices will provide that option when you are saving information or files. It works by erasing the existing ones and writing others over them. Like resetting, overwriting only provides temporary reprieve where advanced technology can lead to access. A hacker is still capable of accessing this information.

Remove any external memory devices attached on the handset. These devices include SD cards and memory cards. They add to the memory of your device and will therefore carry information you might consider confidential. By removing them from your handset, all information that they carried cannot be accessed until the cards are put in other devices. The external memory devices will only work if you had chosen them as your storage option.

Data recovery technology has made it almost impossible to permanently delete information from phones. However, since recovery relies on advanced technology, it is still possible to conceal files and data from unauthorized persons. Follow the directions of your handset to guarantee security. If you would not want any information to fall into the public eye, do not generate it in the first place.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment