Our Suspicious Minds...
...are sometimes not suspicious enough, as it turns out. Knowing what we know and doing what we do, we are generally not surprised even by the most elaborate cyberscams. Like the identity theft perpetrated on several million veterans in the US a little while ago. Lesson learned (for some poor sucker): Use encryption and a decent passphase when dealing with sensitive data.
Ah, but this story is from the news today. Apparently, there is a brisk trade in used hard disks from Western countries to Eastern Europe and Africa - or in this case the UK and Nigeria. And while the disks themselves may of course be stolen, this is generally not the case. Lifting them from any scrapped PC will do nicely. What is the value of a 5 year old computer, anyway?
The real issue, of course, is not the disk, but the information it contains. Bank accounts, credit card numbers, passwords, emails, personal letters, internet searches and any sort of compromising material; it all has value. Huge value, used unscrupously. Which it will be; that is the whole point of this growing international trade.
You should know this already, but in case you do not: Merely deleting information does not remove it from your hard disk, it just makes the space it occupies available for later use. Emails, letters, pictures and any other kind of files can easily be recovered. Sometimes that can be a nuisance, but more often than you care to think it can ruin you. Literally.
Never ever dispose of (scrap, sell or lend) your computer without securely deleting your hard disk first. If you don't now how, let an expert tell you (we are right here). Too cheap even for a next-to-free solution? Use a sledgehammer (provided you can locate the hard disk; smashing the cabinet doesn't do much good except maybe get you committed to mental observation). Run over it with your gasguzzling oversize SUV, finally putting it to some useful work. Set fire to it. Blow it up. Just don't let your PC leave your home or office with your data on the hard disk. Don't do it!
Meantime, you got to hand it to those humans. Their resourcefulness, inventiveness, persistence...even when just coming up with new ways of stealing from their fellow kind. It is quite impressive.
Ah, but this story is from the news today. Apparently, there is a brisk trade in used hard disks from Western countries to Eastern Europe and Africa - or in this case the UK and Nigeria. And while the disks themselves may of course be stolen, this is generally not the case. Lifting them from any scrapped PC will do nicely. What is the value of a 5 year old computer, anyway?
The real issue, of course, is not the disk, but the information it contains. Bank accounts, credit card numbers, passwords, emails, personal letters, internet searches and any sort of compromising material; it all has value. Huge value, used unscrupously. Which it will be; that is the whole point of this growing international trade.
You should know this already, but in case you do not: Merely deleting information does not remove it from your hard disk, it just makes the space it occupies available for later use. Emails, letters, pictures and any other kind of files can easily be recovered. Sometimes that can be a nuisance, but more often than you care to think it can ruin you. Literally.
Never ever dispose of (scrap, sell or lend) your computer without securely deleting your hard disk first. If you don't now how, let an expert tell you (we are right here). Too cheap even for a next-to-free solution? Use a sledgehammer (provided you can locate the hard disk; smashing the cabinet doesn't do much good except maybe get you committed to mental observation). Run over it with your gasguzzling oversize SUV, finally putting it to some useful work. Set fire to it. Blow it up. Just don't let your PC leave your home or office with your data on the hard disk. Don't do it!
Meantime, you got to hand it to those humans. Their resourcefulness, inventiveness, persistence...even when just coming up with new ways of stealing from their fellow kind. It is quite impressive.
posted by Frode Fanebust at 12:14 AM
0 comments
