Data dangers dog eBay hard drive sales

[mandy]

Many people are taking risks with data on hard drives and memory cards which they are selling via eBay, say experts.

Letters, resumes, spreadsheets, phone numbers and e-mail addresses were all found on storage hardware bought...

Also recoverable were temporary files from net browsers which contained login details and passwords for websites and even online bank accounts.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4229550.stm

[scarboroughseaashells]

Hmm, interesting.  My husband routinely "guts" old computers and sells hard drives and anything else salvagable.  He spends a couple of hours "destroying" stuff before he ships them.  I wonder if he gets everything or not.  I forwarded him the story.  Thanks for the info.

[bargainbloodhound]

I'm paranoid.     All of my old obsolete hard drives from the past dozen years or more are sitting on a shelf in a cabinet.  The computers are long gone, but I always save the hard drives.  :

[misteroriginal]

[quote author=bargainbloodhound link=topic=393.msg1662#msg1662 date=1126889658]
I'm paranoid.     All of my old obsolete hard drives from the past dozen years or more are sitting on a shelf in a cabinet.  The computers are long gone, but I always save the hard drives.  :
[/quote]

On, my! Guess I should have been more carefull about deleting all those nekkids of Diger7.












NOT!!!!!

[Kristijntje]

A related article:

Buyers on eBay troll the online auction site for used drives in the hope that the platters haven't been wiped clean and contain valuable data, including credit card numbers, a researcher said Monday.

Simson Garfinkel...has been buying used hard drives on eBay since 2001, then analyzing the data he finds on some of the devices.

Of the 236 drives Garfinkel bought, 7 contained more than 300 recoverable credit card numbers; one from had more than 11,000 unique account numbers that he could retrieve.

That's because only 19 percent of drives he acquired had been wiped clean...

full article: http://www.informationweek.com/news/show...=177105357

[dimucci]

That's because only 19 percent of drives he acquired had been wiped clean

Identity theft is caused by human stupidity.  A law should be passed that requires wiping them clean.

[Kristijntje]

Idaho Power obviously didn't read this thread before disposing of its old hard drives. 

Idaho Power this week launched a thorough effort to recover and protect confidential company information that was inadvertently released to parties outside the company on recycled computer drives that did not have stored data removed according to company policy. At the time of this announcement, the company has accounted for 95 percent of the incorrectly released data storage capacity...

The drives contained proprietary company information including memos, business correspondence with some customers and confidential employee information.  The company has launched an independent investigation into how the information was released and is taking action to secure the return of the drives and the information.

The drives in question are SCSI drives, the type used in servers rather than desktop personal computers, and were recycled within the past year.  The company recycled approximately 230 such drives, all through a single salvage vendor.  The company immediately recovered approximately 146 of the drives from the vendor upon discovery of the issue.  Approximately 84 were sold to 12 parties via eBay by the vendor...

full press release: http://www.idahopower.com/newsroom/press...060428.htm

A NewsChannel 7 investigation has resulted in a major procedure change at Idaho Power to protect sensitive information.

It happened after the company's hard drives were sold on eBay - with confidential still intact company memos and the names and personal information of hundreds of Idaho Power employees...

As a result of our investigation – Idaho Power - will no longer recycle or sell computer hard drives...

The drives contain everything from employee names and social security numbers - even confidential memos to the company’s CEO.

full article: http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stori...511c3.html