System and Method of Secure Garbage Collection on a Mobile Device

A method for performing secure garbage collection involving 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 an 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 object becomes unreachable due to the software application having unreferenced the object;
• determining that the object has become unreachable;
• based upon the determination that the object has become unreachable, obliterating the unreachable object from the memory;
• and
• reclaiming the memory that the object was using.