| Bar Bulletin |
August,
2003 |
| Technology Talk |
|
Your Privacy Exposed!
By John Anderson
Deleting Your Files
When Microsoft
introduced the Recycle Bin in Windows 95, it immediately became a failsafe
for many users. If you delete a file and realize that you actually need
it, you can recover it easily by opening the Recycle Bin, finding the file
you want to recover and restoring it to its previous location.
A common
misconception is that the data is actually removed from the hard drive
(erased) when you delete a file. Any time that a file is deleted on a hard
drive, it is not erased. Instead, the tiny bit of information that points
to the location of the file on the hard drive is erased. This pointer,
along with other pointers for every folder and file on the hard drive, is
saved in a section near the beginning of the hard drive and is used by the
operating system to compile the directory tree structure. By erasing the
pointer file, the actual file becomes invisible to the operating system.
Eventually, the hard drive will write new data over the area where the old
file is located.
Data
Recovery
What happens if
your hard drive crashes or you accidentally delete a needed file.
There are several utilities that you can find on the Internet that allow
you to recover “deleted” files. What these utilities do is search for data
on the hard drive that does not have corresponding pointer information and
present you with a list of these files. Your chances of fully recovering a
file diminish the longer you wait after you deleted the file since the
probability that the file has been overwritten increases. Sometimes you
can recover portions of a file that has not been completely overwritten.
You can do this with programs such as Undelete 3.0 from Executive Software
(www.execsoft.com).
For the really tough jobs data recovery firms can get your data back from
such disasters as computer viruses and lightning strikes.
The
Wrong Hands
But what if you
deleted the file for a reason and you really want it gone? What
happens to this data when it’s time to get rid of your PC? The old PC and
all of the data on it can end up in other people’s possession whether your
PC is being donated, recycled or transferred to another user. You could be
sharing information of a very personal nature, such as:
- Financial
information/investment records
- E-mail messages
- Classified
business documents
- Legal documents
- Internet history
- Personal
documents
- Client
information
- Trade secrets
- Credit card
numbers
- Social Security
numbers
- Address books
Simply deleting the
files from the hard drive won’t protect you from some of the more common
file recovery programs on the market and certainly not from some of the
more sophisticated tools used by professional recovery experts. This is
especially important with the new HIPAA rules and regulations regarding
health care information.
Using a widely
accepted analysis program called EnCase, professional forensic examiners
can find sensitive data that has not been permanently deleted from a
computer’s hard drive.
Once used only by
law enforcement, computer forensic examinations are now widely used by
attorneys for employment and business litigation and have proven
instrumental in many criminal cases, including San Diego’s Westerfield
Murder Trial, Chandra Levy’s disappearance and the terrorist attacks in
2001.
Many large
corporations and government agencies are equipped to handle the disposal
of hard drives, but most small businesses and home computer users lack
formal disposal guidelines, expertise and software. Firms entrusted with
private data must implement measures to safeguard their client’s
information or be faced with the danger of having this personal
information fall into the wrong hands.
Shred Your Data
Normally the issue
of security is focused on keeping intruders from gaining access to your
information remotely. But another far more concerning risk is the
accessing of your files directly from a discarded hard drive. With
increased personal identity theft permanently deleting data should be a
priority. When recycling used computers, hard drives must be wiped clean.
Merely reformatting a hard drive does not permanently delete information.
The only way to properly “shred” data is to use programs like Symantec’s
WipeInfo (www.symantec.com)
or Access Data’s Secure Clean (www.AccessData.com),
which permanently overwrite data, making it virtually unrecoverable. Of
course, to ensure that sensitive information is not retrieved the hard
drive may need to be physically destroyed.
According to a new
study companies and individuals frequently sell or give away old computer
disk drives with sensitive information still on them. The study analyzed
158 disk drives purchased through EBay’s online auction site at computer
stores, salvage companies and swap meets. The study found that 117 (74
percent) of the drives contained old data that could be recovered and
read. Twenty-eight of the drives (17 percent) contained fully-installed,
functional operating systems with user data that required no particular
effort to recover. Another 57 (36 percent) had been freshly formatted but
still contained old data that could be recovered, according to the report.
Only 12 disk drives (9 percent) had been properly cleaned (or “sanitized”)
before being purchased by the students, while 29 of the 158 drives
purchased did not work.
What
to Do with Old PCs
The useful life of
a computer is three to five years and shrinking. By 2005, more than 63
million PCs will be retired, according to a recent study by the National
Safety Council. The EPA has warned that end-of-life electronics pose
serious issues regarding proper disposal and potential environmental
consequences. Smart PC disposal options:
- Donate your PC
to a good cause.
- Recycle your PC
and protect the environment. Many of the parts could be refurbished and
reused with little effort. When we throw away old electronic equipment,
we’re throwing away resources and sometimes generating hazardous
pollution.
If you plan to
either donate your PC or recycle it and are concerned about your data do
more than just delete your files or reformat your drive. Employ data
deletion software or have the hard drive removed and destroyed. You’ll
sleep better knowing where your data is.
