
- #What does reset encrypted data do full
- #What does reset encrypted data do for android
- #What does reset encrypted data do android
- #What does reset encrypted data do password
#What does reset encrypted data do android
When the security company Avast tried to dig up data from 20 wiped Android phones last year, they were able to search for specific patterns that would indicate photos, texts, or other sensitive data, resulting in 250 nude male selfies. That's why, when security companies dive into the problems with factory resets, they generally pick on Android rather than iOS. In theory it would be possible to recover scraps of encrypted data and decrypt it through brute force, but it's a risky and difficult process, enough to scare off all but the most determined attackers. Today's iPhones have a co-processor devoted entirely to security measures, known as the Secure Enclave, which manages keys and performs the grunt work of actually decrypting the data. More importantly, that encryption is supported by Apple's own hardware.
#What does reset encrypted data do full
iPhones use the same solid-state memory as Android phones, but iOS devices have provided full disk encryption since 2009, when iOS 3.0 was deployed. "If you plan to resell.encrypt it and then perform a factory reset."ĭisk encryption is also why, for the most part, iPhones are already protected.
#What does reset encrypted data do password
It's not complete protection, since it's possible to use brute force to crack the simpler disk-encryption passwords, but the more complex a password you choose, the more difficult and expensive it will be for attackers to break through. Disk encryption mostly protects against attackers with physical access to your device, so it's often overlooked in favor of network-based security measures like two-factor authentication - but for this attack, it's the single most important protection you can have.

If the phone's hard drive is encrypted, any unerased data will be scrambled and effectively useless. "If you plan to resell or discard your device and you haven’t already, encrypt it and then perform a factory reset," Ludwig said, when asked for comment on the Cambridge paper.
#What does reset encrypted data do for android
(You can find the option at Settings > Security > Encrypt Phone, for any Android version since 3.0.) Adrian Ludwig, the lead engineer for Android security, recommended preemptive disk encryption for anyone giving up their phone. The quick fix for this is simple: encrypt the data on your phone before you get rid of it. Since those tokens all live in the memory of the phone, they're a prime target for thieves - and if the factory reset doesn't erase them, thieves could use those tokens to compromise every app on your phone. If that token falls into the wrong hands, attackers can use it to log in, just like a stolen password. Once you've logged into a mobile app, the phone preserves that login with a local authentication token - essentially a password that only your phone sees. Those flash memory issues aren't new, but combined with the way mobile apps handle logins, they have serious consequences for Android users. Wiped Android phones aren't being wiped all the way In theory, the factory reset is supposed to wipe all that data, but thanks to the quirks of flash memory, it wasn't being wiped all the way. Using a variety of database recovery tools, two Cambridge researchers were able to scan the wiped phones for portions of the hard drive that had been designated as logically empty, recovering photos, passwords, and chat logs. As a result, a factory reset will often designate data as logically deleted (that is, available to be overwritten) without actually overwriting it, so as to prolong the life of the hard drive. The core of the problem is flash memory, which limits how often a given block of memory can be overwritten.

The standard answer is a factory reset, which wipes the memory and restores the phone's setting, but there's a growing body of evidence that, for Android phones at least, the factory reset isn't enough.Ī study published last week revealed methods that can dig up incredibly sensitive data from supposedly wiped phones, including the login token used to sign into Google accounts.

How do you sell a phone without giving away the data on it? If you've used a phone even briefly, it's filled with all kinds of sensitive data, including passwords and login tokens alongside personal texts and photos, all of which need to be erased before you can safely put the phone up for sale.
