Personal, financial information remains on most second-hand computers
Most identity theft victims will never know how it happened. The results of the “the analysis of information remaining on disks offered for sale on the second-had market” study might provide some insight, if not comfort.
To put it briefly, what this international study found was that 2 out of 3 second-hand computers are sold with data remaining on their hard drives. As is that weren’t alarming enough, that’s a significant decline from last year’s finding that 45 of all computers examined were wiped clean before being sold.
The research has been conducted every year since 2005 and includes the work of computer forensic professionals from government, academia and private industry. The findings are based on third-party purchases of 260 used computers from eBay and private stores. The computers came from the UK, North America, Germany, Australia, Europe and Asia.
Among the information found: Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, government information, patient medical records, court-sealed documents involving child abuse and wills of deceased people, according to Glenn Dardick, study researcher and assistant professor of information at Longwood University in Virginia.
Though not part of this particular study, here are some examples from the United States:
Georgia state government sold computers with credit card numbers, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of an unknown number of Georgia citizens.
Idaho Power Company sold four company hard drives that contained “hundreds of thousands” of confidential company documents including employee names and Social Security numbers, and confidential memos to the CEO.
Greenville, South Carolina Schools repeatedly sold surplus computers at auction without wiping the hard drives between 1999 and 2006. Records for more than 101,000 former and current employees and students were left on the hard drives including dates of birth, Social Security numbers, drivers licenses and sealed juvenile justice records.
Oklahoma Corporations Commission sold a server at auction that held the names and Social Security numbers of approximately 5,000 residents.
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