AppleInsider is reporting that iPhone Software v2.0 will add a secure wipe feature. The screenshot above shows the text “This will take about an hour.” added to the normal erase feature. This time is used to overwrite data to the disk multiple times. The need for secure phone erasure came to light after a researcher was able to recover personal information from a refurbished iPhone using forensic tools. Since then, a few people have published techniques for obliterating personal data using either the GUI or the more thorough command line method. Remote wipe has also been added to the new firmware in case the phone is stolen. We’re happy to see security being made easily accessible to nontechnical users and expect that remote wipe will become standard on laptops in the future.
6 thoughts on “IPhone 2.0 Adds Secure Wipe”
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at the request of many of you i will limit future postings. i will only post if i have something to add to the original post.
Wow Mike, It’s about time.
In case the phone is stolen? What, so the thief can wipe it before reselling it??
No, its so that when you want to retire your iPhone and possible sell it over ebay, that all of your private data, like email credentials, are permanently wiped from the phone. This is a good thing.
remote wipe is in case you lose your phone you can call up att, or if it’s a corporate phone, your sys-admin can remote wipe it. Hopefully before someone gets the data off it.
great stuff.. beautiful �