Old Mobiles


Most of you will i am no doubt be aware of this practice.......... Thought i would just stick it on anyhow.


A TV investigation has revealed that secondhand BlackBerries on Nigerian markets are priced according to the data held on them, not the age or the model of a phone.

Jon Godfrey, director of Sims LifeCycle Services, who is advising on a TV investigation into the trade due to screen later this year, said that BlackBerries sell for between $25 to $65 on Lagos markets. Details of the trade come from an agent in Nigeria unaffiliated to Sims' technology recycling business.

Godfrey explained that the smart phones offered for sale come from the US, continental Europe and the UK. "It's unclear as yet whether the phones are either sold, thrown away, lost or stolen," Godfrey explained.

Other type of smartphone are also of potential interest to data thieves, but it is the trade in BlackBerries that seems to be the most active. Data retrieved from smartphones is itraded by crooks in Nigeria.

BlackBerries include technology to remotely wipe devices and come with built-in encryption. But this encryption is often left switched off because it is considered an inconvenience.

"Business critical data is left on unprotected devices," Godfrey explained. "Anyone who gets these devices will obtain a snapshot of someone's life."

"People need to take residual data issues more seriously and have a policy on how to use and dispose of devices," he added.

According to a survey by endpoint security firm Credant Technologies, four in five mobile phone users store information on their phones that might easily be used to steal their identities.

A survey of 600 commuters at London railway stations revealed that 16 per cent kept their bank account details saved on their mobiles, while 24 per cent also saved their PIN numbers and passwords in the same insecure manner. One in 10 (11 per cent) keep social security and inland revenue details on their phone. Two in five fail to take even basic security precautions, such as password protecting their devices.

Most users also use their personal devices for business use, so that potentially sensitive business emails, customer or corporate information might be exposed as a result of lost devices.

Simon Steggles, a director at computer forensics and data recovery firm Disklabs, explained that it is difficult to destroy data on mobile devices because of the way their solid state drives write data. "Certainly the reset that many firms might do doesn't do enough," he said.

Extracting data hidden in the personal and private memory dumps of solid state devices is not a particularly difficult task, according to Steggles, who added that a potential treasure trove of data might potentially be extracted.

"BlackBerries, for example, contain a huge amount of data including everything from web browser history to email," Steggles added.

I have a Nokia 6230i laying about somewhere. It rings (occasionally) with the Nokia tune. It gives an SMS alert about once a month and this is actually an 'event' in our house! The next 'event' is succeeding to reply in text before it's bedtime. It contains nothing but names and numbers and I wouldn't notice if it was lost or stolen for about 2 days.

Sometimes, being a Luddite has its blessings.  The older I get, the more I realise that people confuse wrinkles for wisdom

if i kept that sort of data on a phone when the phones finished with and ive removed all relevent data id use a big hammer on it the same as hard drives in computers  onto no6 Range Rover

Everyone needs a hobby

I love how this info petrifies the average consumer - we are now in the situation where we have little old ladies smashing computers to bits because they might get "data thefted" they have no idea what this is but the media told them its bad!

You cannot get bank details off of an old HDD unless you have all your log in details stored in a word doc! They might be able to find out your name and address, a. if they looked hard enough and b. again if that info is there. Then again they could always just look you up in the phonebook, or 192.com, or the electoral roll! And this sort of Identity theft has been around a hell of a long time to apply for bank accounts in other peoples names etc.

The most valuable thing on my phone is the contacts, but they only have a value to me and would be worthless to someone else. I have my e-mails on there, personal and work. But confidential work things are rarely discussed via e-mail and if they are held in electronic from then they are password protected or encrypted.

There is far too much hype over personal data these days, if you delete your files or format a disk then a crim will move on to the next drive. Unless you have corporate secrets then you have little to worry about - if you have something that interesting on there then its more likely someone will break into your house and just steal your pc. 

MICK wrote:

Yup, that's me...... But I know how to use it, I just choose not to.

For what it's worth, I first used a 'mobile phone' in 1981........  The older I get, the more I realise that people confuse wrinkles for wisdom

JMC wrote:

I have a Nokia 6230i laying about somewhere. It rings (occasionally) with the Nokia tune. It gives an SMS alert about once a month and this is actually an 'event' in our house! The next 'event' is succeeding to reply in text before it's bedtime. It contains nothing but names and numbers and I wouldn't notice if it was lost or stolen for about 2 days.

Sometimes, being a Luddite has its blessings.

If you do want to store personal details such as bank account numbers, passwords, etc, I would recommend using something like KeaPass. There are desktop and mobile versions and the files are stored with AES encryption.