http://www.switched.com/2008/03/06/selling-your-old-gps-device-be-careful-it-might-still-have-y/
Selling Your Old GPS Device? Be Careful -- It Might Still Have Your Address (or information that you do not want getting out,"DB")
Though it probably comes as no surprise to the paranoid among us, it looks as though Big Brother is, indeed, still watching.
Getting his degree in technology security, an inquisitive young man named Tyler Reber has been doing some research into those seemingly innocent GPS devices that help us get from Point A to Point B.
Reber's research focuses on the following question: "If you sell your old GPS navigation device and you have taken the precaution to reset it to factory settings, does it really delete all your old contacts and data?" To find out, Reber is working with with computer forensics programs such as Access Data: Forensic Tool Kit (FTK) and Technology Pathways ProDiscover, which are used by top computer forensics agencies for recovery and analysis of computer hardware and accessories.
The short answer to Reber's question, worryingly, is no. He connected his TomTom to his computer and had ProDiscover capture an image of it; his results showed that the information was still recoverable.
According to Reber:
"I waited about 30 minutes until the imaging process was complete and what I found was not really too surprising, though maybe at the least a bit alarming. Even after the device had been reset, I could still find instances of both my home address and my school address in deleted files on the TomTom device. Granted, I did have to search for them specifically, but they were still there."
Probably not much of an issue unless your day job involves organized crime (or BFing), but still. Not cool.
Last edited on Thu Mar 6th, 2008 09:40 pm by Dixie Banshee
____________________
"The only thing more dangerous then ignorance is arrogance, taken in combination, the two qualities are even more alarming" ----Eistein
|
