Businesses discarding sensitive data with old phones

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 25 Sep 2008 at 12:39

New research has revealed that 43% of discarded BlackBerrys still contain sensitive personal information.

The study of 160 phones was conducted by BT, the University of Glamorgan and Edith Cowan University in Australia, and found a range of information including employee pay information, bank account details and board meeting and personal medical information.

In one case, the researchers discovered a BlackBerry that had been donated by an executive to a charity. They claim they were able to retrieve business plans for the company he worked for and even his bank account details and information about his children.

Aside from BlackBerrys, the researchers discovered that 23% of normal mobile phones examined still contained enough personal information to allow them to identify the phone's previous owner and employer.

BT claims the incidence of sensitive information being discarded with phones is only set to rise as companies increasingly outfit their workers with smartphones, but fail to take adequate precautions when discarding them.

"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 organisations are not taking the necessary precautions when disposing of hand-held devices," says Dr Andy Jones, head of information security research at BT.

"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."