A team of researchers across the globe, co-ordinated by BT found that two out of three companies were not clearing personal data from their computers before selling them on the second hand market.
The team were given hard disks purchased second hand by BT, without knowing where they were from. They then carried out a forensic imaging process to have a look at the drives. If companies had disposed of data correctly, customers details would have been overwritten with random data, leaving the drives clean. The researchers found that this was not the case with 66 per cent of hard drives they encountered.
Simply deleting data by moving it to the recycle bin and emptying it, doesn't work. All that does is remove the directory entry which locates the data - the data is left intact until it is overwritten by further data.
The advice to consumers who are looking to sell their own PCs on the second hand market is to use one of a variety of tools, including some that are free, to overwrite the the hard drive with random data.
Before I gave my last computer to Age Concern, I erased the data, performed a low level format of the hard drive and then re-installed Windows. I took some time but I figured it was worth it to protect myself.
Of course the other option would be to remove the old hard drive and fit a new one. Taking a hammer to the old drive would make it very difficult for anyone to access it. That is a bit extreme though!
The team, in an earlier investigation, found that sensitive data had failed to be wiped off one on five second-hand mobile phones.
No comments:
Post a Comment