Before liquidating the computer, don't forget to delete the hard drive data!

Companies are forgetting to remove confidential data from hard drives before liquidating. Researchers said that data-filled hard drives are still appearing in the second-hand market.

Surveys conducted by University of Glamorgan (UK), Edith Cowan University (Australia) and Longwood University (USA) for British Telecom (BT) found that 37% of drives were The investigation still contains personal data. Sadly, this data is almost unchanged compared to the surveys that each school has done in the past 2 years, showing that companies are either forgetting the problem or simply missing tools to remove it. It is worth the confidential data from hard drives before reselling.

The following sensitive information can be retrieved from old drives: detailed payrolls, company-specific financial data, credit card numbers, medical data, visa applications, details about online purchases and data . "dirty". The survey was conducted with a total of 350 older drives purchased from online auctions.

The full report of the investigation (which has yet to be made public) reveals, buying used hard disks is a way of increasing unreliable storage capacity. Of the 133 drives purchased in the UK, 44% did not work. With operable drives, 19% contains enough information to identify the previous organization, 65% contains enough data to determine the old host's name, 17% contains 'dirty' data.