Second-hand hard disk reveal company secrets

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 21 Sep 2007 at 10:27

New research reveals that more than a third of hard disks which are bought second-hand still contain sensitive company and personal information.

Researchers from BT and the University of Glamorgan purchased 300 second-hand hard disks in the UK, Australia, North America and Germany and analysed them to see what data could be recovered. They found salary details, financial company data, bank and credit accounts, medical information, pornography, visa applications and online purchasing records.

In total the researchers found over 37% of the hard disks still contained recoverable personal data - a 3% increase on last year's research - indicating that organisations and individuals still aren't effectively wiping their disks before disposing of them.

"When organisations dispose of surplus and obsolete computers and hard disks, they must ensure that adequate procedures are in place to destroy any data and also to check that the procedures that are in place are effective, whether they are handled by internal resources or through a third party contractor," says Dr Andy Jones, head of security technology research at BT.

Dr Andrew Blyth, who leads the research team at the University, adds, "A number of disks contained a substantial mixture of corporate and personal data suggesting that many users are working on corporate data at home, which raises some serious concerns. There are likely to be millions of hard drives on public sale, right now, that still contain highly confidential material."