Data security concerns
A study sponsored by BT and Sims Recycling Solutions and carried out by the forensic computer science laboratories at University of Glamorgan in Wales, Edith Cowan University in Australia and Longwood University in the US, has revealed that 34% of discarded hard drives still contain confidential data. The nature of the data might even have threatened national security if found by the wrong hands.
These links highlight the potential risks to organisations if they don't use robust data deletion services prior to reselling electronic and computer equipment:
- The Register documents what can go wrong if organisations dispose of networking equipment without decommissioning correctly: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/29/second_hand_vpn_security_breach/print.html
- This article reveals how data left on second hand smart phones are fetching a premium in Nigeria, which includes comments from Sims' Jon Godfrey: http://www.pronetworks.org/index.php/content/post/trade_in_secondhand_blackberries_booming_in_nigeria/
- A hard drive containing bank customer details bought on eBay for £35: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1049121/Government-probe-launched-details-million-bank-customers-sold-eBay.html
- In the US, a CBS News investigative reporter found tens of thousands of police records on a digital photocopier bought second hand: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/19/eveningnews/main6412439.shtml
