New research from Cambridge University has found that some data is still recoverable. That’s a scary prospect when your device is now in other hands. We have all sorts of interesting info stored there, from email logins to bank logins and more.
Researchers at security firm AVG analyzed the data, finding “The issue arises from the way devices store information on flash memory. Reading data has a negligible impact on flash drives, but writing new data to them can cause considerable wear”.
Researchers also offer some advice on protecting things. — first and foremost is encrypting your data before doing the reset.
“The Cambridge researchers were able to retrieve some encrypted data and run brute strength attacks until they found the right passwords. So make sure you create a long password of over 15 characters, using upper and lower cases, numbers and symbols: a longer, more complex password would take years to crack. Ideally, use a password generator: you don’t have to remember this password, since you’re erasing this data”.
The bottom line is that this is highly unlikely to happen to you, but it is possible, so take every precaution necessary. It’s better to be safe than sorry.