Patent ID: 7661140

Claim:
A method for performing secure garbage collection for sensitive information on a mobile device, comprising the steps of: receiving at a mobile device secure information over a wireless network; extracting sensitive information from the secure information; storing the sensitive information in memory of the mobile device; wherein a software application operating on the mobile device uses a first object to access the stored sensitive information; waiting for a garbage collection trigger, wherein the garbage collection trigger is an indication that a secure garbage collection operation is to be initiated; determining that the garbage collection trigger has occurred; if the garbage collection trigger has occurred, requesting that the software application unreference objects, wherein the first object becomes unreachable due to the software application having unreferenced the first object; determining that the first object has become unreachable; based upon the determination that the first object has become unreachable, obliterating the unreachable first object from the memory; and reclaiming the memory that the first object was using.