WASHINGTON—The federal government should lean on the wireless industry to make sure hackers can’t access personal information on used smart phones and personal digital assistants, the governor of Illinois told the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission.
“There is a clear cause for alarm when a person’s or company’s most sensitive information—information that was supposed to have been eliminated when their cell phones are reset or discarded—can easily end up in the wrong hands or used for unlawful purposes,” wrote Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D-Ill.). “I urge both of your agencies to require cell-phone companies to develop more effective methods to completely delete a customer’s information.”
Blagojevich’s letter stems from recent news out of Trust Digital, a mobile-security software firm based in McLean, Va. The firm bought 10 used smart phones and PDAs from online auction site eBay. Trust Digital engineers then used software available on the Internet to retrieve 27,000 pages of data from nine of the 10 devices. The firm said the 10th device had not been used, and therefore had no information to mine.
“Personal and corporate data is being sold on the open market through eBay, and it’s also available to anyone who finds, steals or purchases a used smart phone or PDA from any other source. With nearly 2 billion smart phones currently on the market, the potential for having this information fall into the wrong hands is staggering. The general public needs to immediately be made aware of this fact. Whether you’re talking about pilfering an individual’s private files or stealing corporate secrets, this adds up to a very real data-theft epidemic,” said Nick Magliato, Trust Digital’s chief executive officer.
Trust Digital suggests that users of Palm Inc.’s Treo and Research In Motion Ltd. BlackBerry devices should contact the manufacturer of their device about how to wipe their devices clean before selling them. Offerings to wipe data from a device are available for other products, according to Trust Digital.
Customers should also contact their wireless carriers for “information about data security,” said Trust Digital.
Wireless trade association CTIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
