Editor's introduction:- When you leave
your house - do you close and lock the front door? - or do you leave it ajar
in the hope that a kind passing stranger might do it for you...
Your
discarded storage devices can reveal many secrets that you may not want anyone
else to know.
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 Sex,
Spies and Hard Drives
secrets of a thousand data recoveries
by
Simon Steggles,
Director of Disklabs
- November 9, 2006
70% of re-sold
hard-drives and
memory cards contain
pornographic material according to research carried out on 1,000 hard-drives
over the course of a year by
Disklabs Data Recovery and
Computer Forensics.
In addition, the company recently purchased a selection of storage
media comprising of 100 hard-disk drives and 50 memory cards and proceeded to
process a sample batch to test what data was still retrievable from them. The
results were worrying as documents such as CVs and accounting spreadsheets
(including names and mobile numbers) were easily accessible.
Perhaps even more worrying was the fact that many previous owners had
not deleted temporary Internet files. This means that any new, unscrupulous
owner could access personal financial details, such as credit card numbers and
could then go on to order goods from Internet pages by simply changing the
delivery address. Many of the sampled selection also contained pornographic
matter.
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It seems that very few people
are aware that simply pressing the delete button does not necessarily mean that
the data is destroyed and irretrievable. This research comes as a timely
reminder to both consumers and businesses that data should be destroyed properly
and not simply deleted or formatted, as this is not sufficient to completely
erase stored data.
Disklabs have since contacted all of the owners of the hard-drives and
memory cards that data was retrieved from to inform them that their old media
still contained retrievable data. It must be stressed that all these storage
devices have now all been properly wiped by 1st Computer Traders Ltd and the
devices are now being used as spare parts for further data recovery tasks sent
in to Disklabs Data Recovery and Computer Forensics Services.
Relevant Points which may be of interest to you:
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- The company that we bought the entire selection of products from was
eBay.
.
- Most of the traders who sold us the goods didn't care that the
data wasn't wiped properly - one of them told me just to delete everything and
sell it back on eBay!
.
- Don't trust any trader to wipe data from your computer. Nearly all the
ones that successfully removed data had a common denominator; they were
members of the PC Association and as such
were bound by the PCA's Code of Conduct.
.
- 70% of all Data Recovery jobs have pornography on them. We know this
because one of the best ways of checking the integrity of files is by viewing
images or movies. If a picture of the seaside has a big black line through the
middle of it, it is likely that there is still a corruption etc.
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- We come across approximately 2 pedophile cases per year. These are
immediately passed over to the relevant police authorities.
.
- Mobile phones are now recoverable. Mobile phone SIM/USIM cards and phone
bodies are recoverable, and if required, forensic reports can also be produced.
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- Most of the pornography on Mobile Phones is generally taken by the phone
owner themselves, rather than the standard 'download stuff'.
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Moral of this Story
If you want your data wiped properly, use an expert.
Do
not rely on traders who offer to do it for you. We know that about 30% of them
won't bother or do a 'botch job' of it.
Data is NEARLY ALWAYS RETRIEVABLE. If you need data recovering, simply
send it to a specialist,
rather than someone who thinks that they are, or says he will have a go first.
This will nearly always make the job more difficult for the professionals and
most likely more expensive.
Mobile Phones can be recovered as can PDA's and other hand held
devices.
Only buy reclaimed disks from or trade with members of the PC
Association (or similar reputable bodies).
Other related articles.
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About
the author:- Simon Steggles is a director
of
Disklabs Data Recovery and
Computer
Forensics Services, and
1st Computer Traders.
Simon was a member of the British Royal Navy
where he worked in
Communications and
Intelligence, leaving to take up a career in IT.
Simon
specialised in storage, and now runs
Disklabs.
Simon enjoys his family, wine, good food, travel,
and computing.
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