I "suspect" (using "logic", not actual knowledge) that recent e-mails that have been deleted with a delete function are readily recovered, since the data is still in the flash memory / storage of the cell phone. But "old" e-mails can't be recovered from cell phone when they have been overwritten, which happens fairly soon as incoming e-mails pile up, and the storage capacity of the cell phone is limited. I haven't been paying attention to the recent flap over "White House" e-mails; how long ago were the messages of interest sent?
Overwritten/wiped messages on a spinning hard drive can generally be recovered with "forensic" techniques, since the new data doesn't completely overwrite the old, there are "edges" to the tracks, etc. But when data is stored in flash memory, i.e., micro capacitors on a chip, etc., I'm unaware of any phenomenon that retains any vestige of the old data on the flash memory chip. Fred Holmes At 10:08 AM 4/16/2007, Tom Piwowar wrote: >In the last few days we have been seeing media reports about >"permanently" deleted emails. On Friday Information Week ran a story that >said deleted emails were particularly difficult to recover from cell >phones and Blackberries. > >But I think I remember a raft of stories from last summer about emails >deleted from cell phones and Blackberries being easy to recover. We were >being cautioned about selling our old cell phones on eBay because someone >with just a little knowledge could retrieve all our deleted emails. They >even said that the "delete everything" function didn't really delete >anything, it just hid it. > >So which is it? Anybody know? ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
