Even a factory reset in Android phones leaves user data behind
t's common sense to reset an Android phone to its factory state before selling or disposing of it. But beware, researchers recently found that this often fails to properly wipe all sensitive user data from the device.
A test on 21 second-hand smartphones running Android versions between 2.3.x (Gingerbread) and 4.3 (Jelly Bean) revealed that it's possible to recover emails, text messages, Google access tokens and other sensitive data after the factory reset function had been used.
The study was done by researchers Laurent Simon and Ross Anderson from the University of Cambridge in the U.K. on used devices bought from eBay between January and May 2014. The devices included models from Samsung Electronics, HTC, LG Electronics, Motorola and three from Google's Nexus line of phones.
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In 80 percent of cases the researchers managed to recover the Google master token that could allow an attacker to re-synchronize the device with the previous owner's Google account, gaining access to the emails, contacts, Wi-Fi passwords and other data backed up to that account.
In some cases they also recovered access tokens from apps such
t's common sense to reset an Android phone to its factory state before selling or disposing of it. But beware, researchers recently found that this often fails to properly wipe all sensitive user data from the device.
A test on 21 second-hand smartphones running Android versions between 2.3.x (Gingerbread) and 4.3 (Jelly Bean) revealed that it's possible to recover emails, text messages, Google access tokens and other sensitive data after the factory reset function had been used.
The study was done by researchers Laurent Simon and Ross Anderson from the University of Cambridge in the U.K. on used devices bought from eBay between January and May 2014. The devices included models from Samsung Electronics, HTC, LG Electronics, Motorola and three from Google's Nexus line of phones.
big data charts graphs analysis woman user
Survey: Big data interest still growing
It's not all positive, however: Security issues and problems with some existing products leave room for
READ NOW
In 80 percent of cases the researchers managed to recover the Google master token that could allow an attacker to re-synchronize the device with the previous owner's Google account, gaining access to the emails, contacts, Wi-Fi passwords and other data backed up to that account.
In some cases they also recovered access tokens from apps such
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