Perform Secure Erasure on Mobile Devices to Prevent Data Breaches

As the cost of new smartphones continue to rise, many individuals are resorting to pre-owned handsets to fulfil their requirements. As a matter of fact, IDC predicts that the industry for used mobile devices will be valued at around $65 billion by 2024. Safety and operational effectiveness are two significant complex challenges for warehouses and businesses that work with the sanitization of rejected phones for reselling; therefore, mobile phone erasure is essential.

But what makes data erasure so crucial in the marketplace for smartphone resellers? Legacy information remains in the operating system even after recycling or resale. It implies that if the phone is not entirely erased, personal information, such as social networking passwords or credit card numbers, may still be accessible by the phone’s subsequent operator. As you might guess, it puts the former owner’s privacy in danger, particularly if the device is being reused for commercial purposes and includes critical client information. Some very significant legal consequences could result from such a circumstance.

In this article you will learn about secure erasers on mobile devices and how you can prevent data breaches from occurring.

Table of Contents

Secure Erasure on Smartphones: Why is it important

Mobile phones provided by businesses to their employees for professional use, or any BYOD device used to view confidential company data, threatens privacy and may result in a significant data breach. Smartphones are just as vulnerable to a business’s information security as a computer. As soon as a previous owner leaves the organization or no longer needs the phone, understandably, most companies will choose to redistribute that phone to a new staff member, which can pose security concerns.

As one might expect, if you’re using the phone for professional reasons to access confidential files, including client information or an email account, that information stays there until the phone is cleansed correctly or destroyed. Without effective sanitization or data erasure, the new user now has access to private client information. What would prevent that user from sharing that information, resulting in a data breach? Although it might seem unusual, businesses must take precautions to ensure it’s not a threat.

Compared to the threat that smartphones pose when resold to the common person, the danger connected with cellphone distribution inside a company is almost negligible. If you find that you don’t need the old hardware, it makes perfect economic sense to sell it to a third-party reseller.

Nevertheless, in this scenario, the potential of a security breach multiplies tremendously since, instead of an employee acquiring confidential material, a third party outside the company has the information. Because all companies are required by law to preserve customer information, secure erasure should be confirmed whenever company cell phones are taken out of the company for distribution.

Let’s talk about the benefits of performing secure erasure on mobile devices.

Permanently Wipe all Information

You will safely and irreversibly delete all confidential material from the smartphone using secure mobile device erasure, which can include bank information, secret passcodes, emails, chats, pictures, videos, and all other sorts of information. Therefore, no one can get their hands on your private data and use it against you.

Safeguards Against Security Breaches

For most companies, mobile phones are redistributed by the company administrator who merely resets the phone to factory settings. Unfortunately, factory rebooting of a smartphone is a risky low-grade technique since information may still be retrieved using forensic tools and data retrieval programs, making it ineffective for properly erasing information on mobile devices. If organizations don’t use data erasure software before reselling or redistributing mobile phones, they are at risk of exposing their confidential information.

Increases Worth

The pre-owned smartphone is suitable for use or resale after being permanently wiped of all contents. Conducting a joint mobile diagnostic check and secure data erasure offers a unique edge by improving the smartphone’s adequacy and effectiveness. In the second-hand marketplace, a mobile phone that has been expertly assessed, safely erased, and accompanied by a certification of erasure gets higher priced. In addition, the customers receives a higher quality product, which establishes trust.

Regulatory compliance

Upon completing secure erasure of a smartphone, a document of destruction is generated that serves as a credible and impenetrable audit trail. This document guarantees that the phone was safely and adequately erased in accordance with international regulatory standards. Companies and mobile shops can turn them into a USP to maximize the resale value of used cellphones.

Minimize e-waste

Businesses can help reduce e-waste by promoting eco-friendly plans to maximize the resale value of outdated devices through reuse and recycling. In addition, businesses can reduce threats by using an eco-friendly method to wipe and reuse smartphones at the end of their lifespans.

Conclusion

Since the pandemic, there has been an increased amount of uncontrollable data in the remote management of IT equipment. Companies must ensure data cleansing to avoid data leaks or other risks like data theft, identity fraud, harm to their reputation, or legal action.

Nevertheless, in many circumstances, secure data erasure cannot be as easy as doing a system restore. Moreover, mobile data erasure is essential for smartphones running outdated software for mobile sellers. Information on devices that run older software can only be destroyed by performing a secure erasure with application based overwriting.