Phone lost ---- Data threat.

[incognito12]

Someone pick pocketed my phone in metro today and I am worried about the data. My phone had a lot of personal information in it like whatsapp chats and similar stuff. My worry is what can happen if that data is compromised.
I had a pattern lock on it and someone has told me that to crack the pattern lock you have to restore phone to factory settings and delete all data.
My phone had information sensitive to others, so I am worried if someone blackmails/ stalks my friends (whom i am not on talking terms anymore) and I might hv to face consequences

 

[dibblebill]

Did you enable Andorid Device Manger?

Also, phone encryption is handy. I use it on all my devices.

 

[incognito12]

No
is the perceived threat really possible? or I am thinking too much?

 

[dibblebill]

Oh, its possible- a factory reset may not erase personal data stored in /sdcard

 

[incognito12]

I did not use an sd card. it was all saved in internal sd/ app memory. I just want the whatsapp chats to be deleted.
for everything else, I have changed password.

 

[Digital Controller]

First welcome to the forums

Sorry to hear what has happened to your device.

You might want to stroll over here and check out this post: http://androidforums.com/android-lounge/691455-lost-stolen-locked-out-device-read-here.html

Otherwise, if this person resets the device your personal information should be removed from the device. I hope you have also reported this crime to the police.

 

[incognito12]

In India police doesnt pay heed to such crimes. I am scared for my data, should I be?

 

[Digital Controller]

In India police doesnt pay heed to such crimes. I am scared for my data, should I be?

I don't think you have anything to worry about since to get into your device if you have a passcode you need to know the Gmail information. If the user does not know this information then their only option would be to reset the device, removing all of your information.

You need to tell your carrier that the device has been stolen so they can deactivate it.

 

[incognito12]

Pervert held for 'stalking' 16-yr-old - Pune - DNA

I dont want this to happen to my contacts, also the thief can see my chats so he can misuse them etc

its driving me crazy...nd I spent a sleep less night yesterday......

I am a developer so I was fidgeting with USB debugging option, I dont remember if i turned it off. so maybe he roots and unlocks it. I really need honest opinion.

 

[lunatic59]

Pervert held for 'stalking' 16-yr-old - Pune - DNA

I dont want this to happen to my contacts, also the thief can see my chats so he can misuse them etc

its driving me crazy...nd I spent a sleep less night yesterday......

I am a developer so I was fidgeting with USB debugging option, I dont remember if i turned it off. so maybe he roots and unlocks it. I really need honest opinion.

Here's the poop, the full poop, and nothing but the poop.

First, if you have a pattern lock on your phone and the thief tries too many times, the ONLY thing that will unlock it is your Google account password, so it would be prudent that you change that, in case the person who has your phone knows you.

A factory reset will remove the pattern lock, but it will also delete the personal data like emails, sms messages, contacts, etc. Anything that is stored in a system database and not an external file.

A factory reset may not deleted files stored on the phone's internal /sdcard partition like images or saved documents ... but it might as well. It really depends on the phone and Android version.

If the phone's bootloader is locked and they try to unlock it, that will wipe all data from the phone including user files.

SMS (text) messages are not tied to the Google account but to the phone number through your carrier. If you reported the phone and the carrier deactivated it, then whoever has it cannot make calls or send messages. If you haven't reported it, you should do that unless you are trying to use one of those find my phone apps. If it's deactivated by the carrier, many of those will no longer work.

Really the only thing that represents a real security risk is if you had any unencrypted files stored on the /sdcard partition, assuming the thief is savvy enough to find them

 

[Thom]

More poop ... I have three phones and two of them are deactivated. They are all registered with Google. Android Device Manager can find any of them if they are powered on ... even if they are locked.

... Thom

 

[lunatic59]

Interesting. ADM couldn't find my Nexus which is sitting right next to me until I turned off Wifi, but it could find an Asus tablet in my briefcase which is wifi-only.

 

[funkylogik]

Ive never actually tried ADM but i totally agree with Lunatic's second-last post.
Dont worry dude. The theif just wants a phone, not your social life.
If he's in any way savvy he'l have thrown away the sim and factory reset from recovery so he has nothing of yours. He would need your gmail password to even get your contacts.
Be a pain in his ass and get the phone IMEI blocked :thumbup:

Bit off topic but does anyone know statistically how strong a pattern lock is compared to a 4-didgit pin? Im guessing its a bit stronger.... weaker actually... or is it equal?
I just dont use a lock tbh lol. Id rather have the person use my phone til i catch em

 

[codesplice]

Bit off topic but does anyone know statistically how strong a pattern lock is compared to a 4-didgit pin? Im guessing its a bit stronger or is it equal?
I just dont use a lock tbh lol. Id rather have the person use my phone til i catch em

My gut impression is that a pattern of X points will actually be weaker than a PIN of X digits. For any position in the PIN, there are ten possibilities (0-9). There are only nine possible starting positions for the pattern, and each subsequent position only has at least one fewer options (since the pattern can't repeat a point, while a PIN can repeat a number).

So a 4-digit PIN would have 10,000 possibilities (10*10*10*10), while a pattern of 4 points would have only 3024 (9*8*7*6) - assuming I mathed correctly.

And that's not even considering how much easier it is to determine the pattern from fingerprint smudges.

 

[funkylogik]

Yeah i like your maths there bro and in a pattern each consecutive point has to be adjacent to the last one unlike a pin say 1379.
Id never even considered the finger print thing lol,!!!

 

[incognito12]

Well, I know I am just thinking too much and getting scared for no reason, just that the phone had a lot of personal info, that I would never want to share with anyone and also now I would not even know who can possibly access it. this thought merely drives me crazy.

 

[lunatic59]

Bit off topic but does anyone know statistically how strong a pattern lock is compared to a 4-didgit pin? Im guessing its a bit stronger.... weaker actually... or is it equal?
I just dont use a lock tbh lol. Id rather have the person use my phone til i catch em

Are Android unlock patterns as secure as numeric PINs? | What can scientific models tell us about the world?

 

[incognito12]

Are Android unlock patterns as secure as numeric PINs? | What can scientific models tell us about the world?

Should I be worried again then

 

[DonB]

Did you read the thread the DC posted, we have links in there that you can sideload the Androidlost and is pretty effective. http://androidforums.com/android-lounge/691455-lost-stolen-locked-out-device-read-here.html

Lost or Phone Stolen Read Here !!

Ok I will post stuff here as we go, if anyone has anything to add, simply prepare your addition and PM it to me and I will add it to this Guide and resource center for all, I will also make sure you get recognition for bringing it to our attention. I will only post Android Lost and Plan B for now and others can offer tutorials on other apps, options and procedures, and I will add them as you give them to me. For now I will keep this thread closed as I don't want it to get loss with confusion with the many other post we will have. I prefer if someone has lost a phone or had it stolen, that you open a specific thread and we will help you there.



Android Lost

Android Lost - Android Apps on Google Play

Here is the Guide and some great features, GUIDE

If not already installed on your device you can install remotely

Remote installation

If you have already lost your phone and have not yet installed androidlost you still have a chance of using it. First push the app to the phone as described above. Then send an SMS with the text "androidlost register". This will startup the app, get a google push key and send it to the web server. You should now be able to sign in on Android Lost and start the alarm.

Here are a few Videos for your viewing..



​

 

[incognito12]

I am assured that I wont get the phone back. thats how it is in India. now my only worry is the data.... nothing else.

 

[DonB]

I am assured that I wont get the phone back. thats how it is in India. now my only worry is the data.... nothing else.

Instead of being assured, why not try and see, does not cost you anything to try to sideload. Also as other mentioned, the phone is useless to others unless they FR, simple as that. So if you don't want to try, then I say stop worrying about you data info, it will be gone once they FR

 

[incognito12]

I got my sim blocked and the ADM cant contact my device...!
had you been in my place and had super sensitive data in the phone in form of whatsapp chats...woulld you bee worried? its a question fr all

 

[lunatic59]

I got my sim blocked and the ADM cant contact my device...!
had you been in my place and had super sensitive data in the phone in form of whatsapp chats...woulld you bee worried? its a question fr all

If I had a device with sensitive data on it stolen, I most certainly would be worried. I am not a whatsapp user so I can't comment on its particular security model, but if you'd like to try and prevent this sort of thing in the future, we can start a new thread and go over security practices such as encryption, remote wiping and backing up.

 

[dan330]

tbh.....

if I had very sensitive data/info on a device...
that is out in public...
can be stolen or lost...
not in a secure location...

I would have done more thinking.. and put in security..
android has a lot of these apps out there...
that can lock.. text.. find... and wipe the data clean.

things that can be used to blackmail me and my friends.. should have been moved off a non-secure device.

 

[codesplice]

I'm with dan330. I'm kind of anal-retentive when it comes to security. Any sensitive data on my phone is encrypted and then stuck behind a 6-digit PIN lockscreen that is automatically activated if my phone wanders beyond the reach of my Pebble's bluetooth. I've also made sure that ADM is activated and functioning. Additionally, I'm using 2-step authentication for my Google account with codes generated on my Pebble, which makes it easy to revoke just that phone's access to my account. As a last-ditch, ADM would wipe everything for me.

That said, I wouldn't lose too much sleep if I were in your position. The pattern lock may not be mathematically as strong as a PIN could be, but there's also a very limited number (I think five?) of times that it can be incorrectly entered before the phone will require a Google account password to unlock. And as others have mentioned, whoever has the device is probably far more interested in just wiping everything anyway so that they can sell it to make a buck. I wouldn't worry about your data.