DUBAI: Discarded mobile phones, laptops and tablets often contain large amounts of private data, even when owners think that data has been properly erased, experts have warned.
“Anything that bears data – even smart watches – contain data, and that has a value to you and to whoever access to that information,” Khaleej Times quoted Ken Neil, the director of UAskME, a Dubai-based data destruction company, as saying.
“In this part of the world, there could be pictures of yourself or your children, passport copies or Emirates IDs,” he added. “Realistically, everything a cybercriminal needs is in the palm of your hand.”
Neil added that in the case of companies or organizations, improperly discarded electronics may contain entire contact lists or sensitive, private e-mail exchanges between employees. Some statistics have shown that as many as 80 percent of second-hand devices still contain data from a previous user.
“Unless you are a forensic expert or an IT expert, you can’t prove that everything is gone,” he reportedly said.
Additionally, Neil noted that there remains a general lack of knowledge on the proper security procedures necessary for the disposal of devices.
“There is an absolute lack of awareness, not just in the UAE. It’s a global issue,” he was quoted as saying. “People rely on the factory reset, without realizing what it actually can and can’t deliver.”
According to Neil, UAskME and other professional data destruction companies use a process that goes through forensic laboratories in which data is completely destroyed and an automated certificate is generated which shows that everything is gone.
Exact figures for the number of discarded cell phones, tablets and laptops do not exist, but these items account for a large portion of electronic waste in the UAE, reported Khaleej Times.
According to global statistics compiled by various agencies through the “solving the e-waste problem” (StEP) initiative, in 2014 the UAE produced an average of 17.2kg of electronic waste per inhabitant, a total of about 101 metric tonnes in a year – the highest total amount of all the countries of the GCC.
The numbers, however, pale in comparison to 2012, when the UAE generated 29.28kg of e-waste per inhabitant, a total of 162.11 metric tons, the report said.
