The lifespan of notebook PCs, PDAs and smartphones is falling as the pace of technology marches ever onwards. But for every new mobile device purchased by organisations of all sizes there is usually a piece of legacy hardware that gets sold, passed on to a colleague, friend or relative, or simply thrown away in the office rubbish. Deleting data on your portable device rarely means that the data goes away forever. There are commercially available utilities that can un-delete `deleted’ data in seconds. Many organisations allow staff to access the company network using a wireless notebook, PDA or smartphone, with network based security software. It’s worth noting that the latest exploits can use connection hijacking to give hackers access to the company network using the mobile device as a stepping stone, which poses a danger when the unit is passed on or falls into the wrong hands.