Betrayed By A Cell Phone

Don't Keep Secrets On Your Cell Phone — It Might Not Keep Them

(CBS/AP)  "The tools are out there" for hackers and thieves to rummage through deleted data on used phones, Trust Digital's chief technology officer, Norm Laudermilch, said. "It definitely does not take a Ph.D."

Fabris, Palm's director of wireless solutions, said the company may warn customers in an upcoming newsletter about the risks of selling their used phones after AP's inquiries. "It might behoove us to raise this issue," Fabris said.

Dean Olmstead of Fresno, Calif., sold his Treo phone on eBay after using it for six months. He didn't know about Palm's instructions to safely delete all his personal information. Now, he's worried.

"I probably should have done that," Olmstead said. "Folks need to know this. I'm hoping my phone goes to a nice person."

Guy Martin of Albuquerque, N.M., wasn't as concerned someone will snoop on his secrets. He also sold his Treo phone on eBay and didn't delete his information completely.

"I'm not that kind of valuable person, so I'm not really worried," said Martin, who runs the www.imusteat.com Web site. "I guarantee that three-quarters of the people who buy these phones don't think about this."

Trust Digital found no evidence thieves or corporate spies are routinely buying used phones to mine them for secrets, Magliato said. "I don't think the bad guys have figured this out yet."

President Bush's former cybersecurity adviser, Howard Schmidt, carried up to four phones and e-mail devices — and said he was always careful with them. To sanitize his older BlackBerry devices, Schmidt would deliberately type his password incorrectly 11 times, which caused data on them to self-destruct.

"People are just not aware how much they're exposing themselves," Schmidt said. "This is more than something you pick up and talk on. This is your identity. There are people really looking to exploit this."

Executives at Trust Digital agreed to review with AP the information extracted from the used phones on the condition AP would not identify the sellers or their employers. They also showed AP receipts from the Internet auctions in which they bought the 10 phones over the summer for prices between $192 and $400 each.

Trust Digital said it intends to return all the phones to their original owners, and said it kept the recovered personal information on a single computer under lock and disconnected from its corporate network at its headquarters in northern Virginia.

Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, a respected computer security expert, said phone owners should decide whether to auction their used equipment for a few hundred dollars — and risk revealing their secrets — or effectively toss their old phones under a large truck to dispose of them.

What about a case like the Lothario whose affair Trust Digital discovered?

"I'd run over the phone," Zatko said. "Maybe give it an acid bath."

[wandg21stcen]

Never having been a slave to technology, I can manage both cell phone use and expense, so that it does not overtake my common sense and decorum. That a cell phone has a diary capacity when reused is a no brainer, so I am neither surprised nor empathising with anyone who has such a scenario play out. It is like using a computer then not wanting your job to ever know what you had on it. I have seen what should be highly confidential material on donated and recycled electronics. On the up side, that a cell phone can be perpetually used to dial "911", even if service is off, is great for one in distress. Also, the advent of towers and satellites improved the capability of specifically locating the orign and contents of calls, like DNA, to solve crimes. No more stealthy bosses can forward calls from the job to their homes while we toiled on site while they could give the higher ups the impression that they were at work too. On a darker note, a corrupt New Orleans ex-policeman and his triggerman were convicted of arranging the murder of a mother that had reported his public beating of a young man needlessly to internal affairs.

[bwright923]

I totally agree! I work at a pharmacy and the people are so rude with their cell phones that we had to put up a sign to tell them not to talk on their phone while picking up their script. They still get upset when you ask them to get off. My wife and I do not own cell phones and live just fine.

[jetlizhan]

i know i'll be in the minority - but my opinion on this article is GOOD! these *&%$ cell phones are taking over our lives - young and old are cell-phone crazy. i have one, but use it as i believe it should be - IN AN EMERGENCY!!! and please, please pray that a law is passed that NO ONE can use while driving. one can always pull over to make a call, whether it be for pleasure or an emergency.