02/10/2003

By DAN STARKS / 6NEWS

You may have heard recent warnings about protecting your private information when either selling or dumping your old computer.

It could be as risky as throwing away your wallet with all your credit cards and personal identification inside.

"Your personal data is at risk when somebody resells a machine,” said Mark McLaughlin, Computer Forensics International.

Todd Biathlons has an old computer he wants to give to charity, but first he reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled Windows.

"We hope to erase all the data and not have it accessible to anyone, Biathlons said."

That should do it, right? To find out Todd agreed to let computer expert Kevin Kranz take a look at the machine. Here's what he found:

There are old invoices, financial data, a treasure trove for someone who might have identity theft on his mind.

More Information
	According to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, the ratio of computers that are obsolete to those that are newly purchased is increasing. The ratio was formerly 2:3 but by 2005, researchers predict the ratio to be 1:1. Instead of dumping outdated computers in landfills, government agencies and companies are giving them to schools and other nonprofit organizations. But before individuals or companies donate computers to schools or other nonprofits they first need to ensure that the computer does not contain any confidential information on the hard drive.
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	Wipe it clean There are steps you can do to ensure that your personal data is safely erased, says Industrial engineer Sonny Wilson. "There are some consumer-based software out there and available. One particular title is PartitionMagic, and they have something that will actually shred your file system to where it’s irretrievable… and typically the cost on that is 25 to 30 bucks,” he says. According to Global Information Assurance Certification computer users can also safely erase their hard drives using: · Software programs such as SecureClean. SecureClean allows removal of sensitive data without formatting the hard drive. It will permanently remove deleted email, securely remove files, and remove passwords written to the swap file. · WipeDrive, Norton Utilities Wipe, gdisk, or other secure wipe software. These utilities completely erase the hard drive regardless of the type of partition. The programs can be used to overwrite data on the disk multiple times. · A high-energy magnet to erase the drive. This method should be used in conjunction with a utility such as WipeDrive. Magnets should be used with care around media that is not to be destroyed. · According to Computer Forensics International you can also properly “shred” data by using programs like Symantec's WipeInfo. There’s also a free option that’s virtually foolproof! There’s the hammer, says Wilson. “The other recommendation, should you not want to spend any further money, is to [pull] your hard drive out, hit it with a hammer, and that way you can be assured that the data is gone. Experts also suggest taking a drill and drilling several holes into your hard drive to make sure the machine is virtually useless.

The list of recovered files takes up pages and pages.

"There's quite a bit of stuff here,” Biathlons acknowledged. "It's surprising that they were able to get this much information off of there."

"A file is never really deleted until it's overwritten, and that's a very fundamental issue in computer forensics," McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin is sounding the alarm after he tested eight hard drives purchased at secondhand shops around the country.

"We found some unbelievable things. Credit card numbers, social security numbers of celebrities, of Oscar winning actors."

At a graveyard for government computers, we selected three discarded hard drives at random and had them tested, and found undeleted data galore. So, how can you protect your data? Reformatting doesn't do it.

"It makes the file inactive. But the file contents are still there,” McLaughlin said.

And while erasing data magnetically helps scramble the files, even it is not foolproof.

"What they should do first is they should wipe the drive," McLaughlin said.

You can buy software that scans the disc and bit-by-bit overwrites the old data; in other words it replaces the important stuff with frivolous numbers. It takes anywhere from 3 to 20 passes.

"And when you overwrite it so many times, it's unrecoverable,” he says.

The software costs about $40.

But the best method for making that data disappear, according to McLaughlin, is both free and easy.

"What I recommend is taking the drive out of the machine and taking a drill and running a drill through it several times."

Whatever it takes, to physically destroy the drive. After looking over the data retrieved from his old computer... Todd has some advice for anyone about to pitch a PC.

"I'd find another way of deleting the information before I gave it away, and I'd know where I'm giving it."

Police and computer forensics experts use software costing thousands of dollars to recover data.

But simpler software is available in computer stores, making it possible for just about anyone to be able to see deleted files hidden on the hard drive.

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