Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > BBC - Real story programme tonight

[twpd]

A story of muppets.

A story about people's personal and financial details up for sale on street markets in Nigeria - details that have been gleaned from old discarded computers in the UK and which have subsequently found their way to Africa.

Now please excuse my incredulity here but, people are complaining that their details have been hoovered from old pc's that they have taken to coucil tips for dumping or recycling. They assumed that the council would ensure that the computers would be wiped. Since when did it become the responsibility of councils to ensure hard drives are wiped clean from pc's being dumped there. What sort of muppets dump an old pc with all their data still on it?

It's akin to dumping your old wallet/purse/handbag whilst leaving your licence/credit cards/pin numbers etc in it. You wouldn't do that, would you? So, why dump a pc without erasing the hard drive?

Some people shouldn't be allowed to have computers - they're clearly too stupid.

[doogalman]

Allways opened up the pc and wrecked anything of any use then politly taken to the dump for the low-lifes to try and sell.
Our local council operatives are often seen at local boot fairs flogging the gear.

[rockhopper]

I would guestimate that 95% of the home computer users in England think that once they have deleted a file then its gone for good. 95% of the people who work at my place would appear to think that as well!!

[Martini]

Some people don't realise that deleting files just stops you from seeing them - they don't go away. My missus just watched the program and said that she always emptied her "deleted items" folder and thought she was was safe! Anyone who knows how PC file structures work would know that even these files are easy to recover.

One of the business continuity magazines carried out a test last year. They deleted files on a series of hard drives, they put one in a bucket of water, one in an oven and drilled through the other. A data recovery company STILL got most of the data back!

I think the least the council / tip operator could do is put a sign up telling people not to dump a PC unless the data has been overwritten.

Maybe it's a business opportunity? I'll totally delete anything on your disk drive for £10.

[doogalman]

Sounds like a good deal for a tenner.

[Martini]

If you are worried try one of these types of programs. I use drive zapper.....

http://www.wincleaner.com/products/d...3d 921f705968

Dangerous program in the wrong hands... "Dad, Jamie just clicked on "drive zapper delete all" and now the pc don't work... dad, dad???"

[Dementor]

You don't want software, you want hardware, this always works for me