To conduct its study, fraud protection firm CPP purchased 35 mobile phones and 50 SIM cards from online auction site eBay. From the analysis of these resources CPP concluded that in 19 mobile phones and 27 SIM cards a total of 247 pieces of data were preserved, including photos, texts, emails and even online banking details.
What's more, half of Britons who bought a second-hand mobile phone claimed to have found data belonging to the previous owner of the device. Something strange, considering that 81% of the owners interviewed by CPP keep deleting their handsets before selling them.
According to Joe Nocera, an expert at PricewaterhouseCoopers, it should be borne in mind that "many of the concerns about the security of their information that people have when they think about their personal computers are also applicable to the mobile world."
"As mobile devices become more sophisticated, they increasingly lend themselves to the same types of access to email, passwords and other sensitive information as PCs in the past," and therefore expose themselves to the same security risks," Nocera explains.
Danny Harrison, a mobile data expert at CPP, calls the results of the company's study an "alarming wake-up call" for mobile users. "Consumers are updating their mobile phones more than ever before and it is imperative that they take personal responsibility to properly manage their own data."
Source: CSO
