Data Wipe

[LemonScrub]

When one has to take a phone or tablet in for repair, how do you make sure that the repair center cant recover wifi passwords and such even after you do a device wipe. i heard the best way is to encrpyt the device before a factory reset to make sure.

 

[LCBXX]

May I ask why this would be of such importance? Are you worried they come sniff your access point?

 

[Maverick Jester]

Given that Android does not natively mount as a USB device, it would be unnecessarily more difficult to even bother trying to recover someone else's data...

Just do a full wipe, factory reset, and format the SD card if you are that paranoid...

 

[LemonScrub]

Yes i suppose if one is paranoid , you see tools online that can recover data from an android device.. so i would like to securely erase the internal storage. Do people change their wifi passwords when they hand a device in for repair

 

[Maverick Jester]

Yes i suppose if one is paranoid , you see tools online that can recover data from an android device.. so i would like to securely erase the internal storage. Do people change their wifi passwords when they hand a device in for repair

Those tools are reliant on a number of things:

• The Android device mounting as a USB device.
• Explicit knowledge of where the device stores the passwords, and the security mechanisms built into the OS that natively protect them.
• The data not being overwritten entirely, given that it is NAND flash storage, and that the recovery tools can still access overwritten blocks.

If the individual can perform steps 2 and 3, then there wasn't anything that you could really do to protect yourself from it anyway.

But- just wipe your Android device, format the internal SD card, and you should be more than fine.

 

[PsyWulf]

Even if they were to go to all the effort of Unerasing your phone's internal storage,you assume they'll be able to locate your WiFi locations?

Tinfoil hat time

 

[Syphonx]

So some guy fixing phones in a factory in Johannesburg or wherever is gonna recover my wifi password and come down to cape town and hack into my network? Wrap your sandwiches in tin foil, not your head